I have to say that one of my goals in life is to accept everyone as they are and even if they’re not what people would categorize as ‘normal,’ (by the way, who likes normal?) to not degrade them to their face or behind their backs. This year especially I’ve seen it happen too often. Lately I’ve paid attention to a particular person who I’ve seen it happen to a lot. In discussion in a few of my classes, he’ll put his hand up and when the teacher calls upon him, he’ll give his input on the subject. However, it’s not anything that someone else would ever say, not because it’s dumb or not well thought out but because it’s something so specific to history or an event that it blows people’s minds.

But people don’t appreciate it.

Instead they will turn to their neighbor and roll their eyes, shake their heads, whisper some comment like, “I hate when he talks. He’s so annoying.”

What I want to know is why people find it annoying when someone interjects a historical fact that none of us would even dream of trying to look up. How does it make him, or anyone else, weird because they know amazing facts? How does it make them the stupid ones if none of us could pull out a fact like that off the top of our heads like they do multiple times an hour?

Making fun of someone because they know more than you is something I don’t understand. Honestly, if anyone has a reason to call people stupid, it’s the people who know all those tidbits of information because they indubitably have a wider span of knowledge.

Once I picked up on the fact that people would turn away from him while he talked, I started paying even more attention to him. I tuned into every word, I looked him straight in the face when he talked, and I honestly listened to him. While everyone else was acting like he wasn’t talking or whispering rude comments or giving him the evil eye, I listened. He would look around the room and I think he probably saw that people were blatantly disregarding the fact he was speaking and then he would see me paying attention. Now when he talks to the class, he looks straight at me and I always give him a little half second smile.

I don’t expect the masses to stare down that person with wide eyes and a smile on their face when they’re talking but I think it’d be nice for that person to be paid attention to and appreciated for their intellectual contributions. It’s not only going to make that person feel like they’re more a part of the class but hey, you might learn something.

PS- If you don’t know what some of the things in here mean, it’s probably because it’s a Harry Potter reference.

PPS- Follow me on twitter: @alexcurrylipka