Journal #28 - Different Social Status or Culture

There are three main places I have been in my life where I have just absolutely not fit in. This one time, my family decided that it would be a great idea to go to Amish Country. So, me, being insanely interested in the Amish/non-technological world, jumped at the chance to go. However, I have a deep appreciation for all of the technological advancements of this time period... phones, iPods, pc's, laptops, etc... We drove over to Arthur, a popular Amish area. It was very neat! They had animals and corn everywhere. I could have been in the 1800s. Only, not, seeing as though there were people everywhere taking pictures of stuff with their cameras and iPhones galore. I slowly looked down at my hand. I was one of them. I was taking a picture of these poor Amish folk's goat. Backing away, I came to a realization. I am not Amish. None of these people were! Okay, some were - but I felt really out of my element. I had a great time that day, but I could feel the stares of all of the Amish folk. They liked the visitors, but they must have thought we were extremely weird. I find the Amish people very interesting, but in the end, I will never be Amish. The second time I felt out of my element was when I was at this fancy dinner party with my parents. I am not a fancy individual. If I try....REALLY hard I can pull off a higher middle or lower higher class, but not often. I'm just not like that. I felt extremely awkward then. Lastly, I felt out of place at school. I have always been in the sort of "weird" group of kids. Its not that we are weird, necessarily, but we definitely look at life differently. I have never ever seen this as a bad thing. However, the weirdness my friends and I have provokes negative thought in those of the... "more popular" groups. This has gone down immensely since middle school - everyone minds their own business now for the most part - but it had been bad. Whenever we would have group projects with assigned partner, getting put with a different social class student was pretty much the worst thing ever. Unfortunately, since the weirder groups tend to be lower on the food chain, such an occurrence was not enjoyable for me. Those are pretty much the only places where I have felt like I didn't fit in. For any situation similar to those, I tend to assert my position as being an awesome individual, so I do not notice any negative feelings of displacement.