28 Jan 2010, 5:18 pm
Hello WP,
Seeing as I started posting recently, I guess it would be polite to introduce myself. I have been putting this off a little, don't know where to start.
I don't have a diagnosis (and I hope nobody minds me "infiltrating" this place 
), but I do feel this Wrong Planet could be a Right Place for me ... for some time, maybe. The image of being "an exchange student on another planet" appeals to me a lot. Being in a foreign country means you get to know a fascinating culture, the landscape may be beautiful, the people generally nice and helpful, but sometimes you still feel all lost and alone and homesick and wish somebody spoke your language.
I live in another country than I was raised in and am amazed how much I like it. Maybe being a "foreigner" makes me feel more comfortable with feeling "alien" in general.
Before coming across the planet metaphor, I often said I thought I was "missing some social group gene", a gene that enables you to walk into a room, see what people are the ones you'll be forming a group with in a split second, approaching those people and miraculously interact and be together.
While I am quick to understand most concepts rationally (excluding maths 
), I seem to be so slow socially. A friend who has observed several of my "first contacts" with people once said: "You are equally nice to everybody, so people think you don't care about any of them. You seem so detached." It was quite a revelation that being nice isn't enough, you have to be nice in different doses. I understand that, but I still can't do it.
I like talking and leading long interesting conversations, but I hate smalltalk. (I guess I don't have to tell anybody about that here.)
The social awkwardness or should I say conversational dyslexia is what bothers me most. Usually, I don't mind doing things on my own, but I does get quite lonely sometimes.
There are also some other AS symptoms that I can find myself in - I hate my clumsiness and that I constantly chew on my lips, fiddle with my hands etc because I don't know what to do with my body to make it seem *natural*. The slight obsessiveness I consider to be mostly positive, actually. When something catches my interest, I will pursue it intensively - which means I learn a lot about all kinds of things.
A few days ago, I read across my old diaries. I started keeping one when I was 12 and I'm glad I did. Because now I can't tell myself I'm twisting my memories or talking myself into stuff. Reading what I wrote made me laugh sometimes, but it also made me quite sad. I wish somebody had told that miserable teenager there was nothing wrong about being different.
This post is getting quite long, but I still wanted to share a short diary piece I found quite amuzing (slightly shortened, translated into English):
Today I went to the Christmas market with K. and F. Sometimes it can be nice just being "normal". [...] I mean, "normal" as in just being together with friends, acting silly, being superficial and not philosophizing about the meaning of life or thinking about the Beatles. Even if we did pass a stall with calendars where they also had one of the Beatles and one of John Lennon for 2003! [...] Then they played 'Happy X-Mas (War is over if you want it)' [by John Lennon] . It was so nice walking around there, listening to that song and seeing people humming along. Even K. did! What a strange thought, living in 2002, no, rather that I live in the 20th/21st century, that so many people have come before me and will come after me. [...] I really do wonder often where all this life is coming from and where it's going..."
No irony there.
As you can probably tell, the Beatles were my biggest obsession at the time (actually, my longest and most intense interest ever). The meaning of life coming on a close second.
Currently, I am fascinated by languages and linguistics, to an extent that might get on other people's nerves sometimes but does not interfere much with my daily life.
Look forward to finding my way around here and getting to know people.
28 Jan 2010, 5:27 pm
CockneyRebel
Veteran
Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 116,810
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love
28 Jan 2010, 5:42 pm
Welcome to WrongPlanet.
DemonAbyss10
Veteran
Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,492
Location: The Poconos, Pennsylvania
28 Jan 2010, 5:50 pm
28 Jan 2010, 6:37 pm
Welcome to Wrong Planet!
That had never occurred to me
28 Jan 2010, 6:43 pm
Hi. Welcome to WP. Hope you like it here.
Whereabouts do you live?
richie
Supporting Member
Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
28 Jan 2010, 7:00 pm
To WrongPlanet!! !
28 Jan 2010, 10:57 pm
29 Jan 2010, 4:18 pm
30 Jan 2010, 6:11 am
Thanks for the welcome!
In the Netherlands.
@Scientist: My phonology professor is totally obsessed with the dialect of Sittard. Do you speak it?
31 Jan 2010, 8:00 am
I do speak it, though it was not my first 'language' (which was Dutch / ABN (Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands), no dialect). I was born and grew up in Sittard and some of my relatives and friends always spoke/speak dialect and my parents always spoke/speak dialect to each other (and Dutch to me and my sister) and I sometimes spoke dialect too, because I also wanted to learn and practice it, but I lived in some other places in the Netherlands (Nijmegen and Vlaardingen) and I returned to Sittard recently, after almost 12 years. Funny some people are obsessed with our dialect
02 Feb 2010, 4:29 pm
Well, he seems to be a specialist on Limburgish dialects and I think he's from Sittard himself. Maybe "obsessed" is a bit exaggerated, but he manages to refer to it in almost every single lecture ("The interesting about the Sittard dialect is..." or "Astonishingly, you can also see that in the dialect of Sittard...") It's funny but it can get on your nerves after a while.
Not saying that it's not interesting though.
Did you study in Nijmegen?
04 Feb 2010, 11:42 am
Not saying that it's not interesting though.Did you study in Nijmegen?
Yeah, I studied psychology in Nijmegen and did scientific research at Nijmegen University. Lived in Nijmegen for about 6.5 years. Nice place. Why are you asking?
