「故事·听力」I Am A Geek And I Have No Friends

I Am A Geek And I Have No Friends

Hi, this is Megan, and recently, she tried to solve the greatest mystery in the world: how to make friends!

Throughout her life, Megan felt like an outcast. Even in kindergarten she was always alone, doing her own thing. It's not that she didn’t want to hang out with other kids, it was just that she...didn’t fit in. Maybe she’s always been a little bit weird. She always assumed things would change by the time she got to high school, but they really didn’t. Every time she tried to make new friends, it didn’t work out. For example, she would start to chat with someone and they'd seem so uninterested in anything she had to say, and if she tried to ask questions about them, they also kind of didn’t want to answer. They simply never...clicked. It seemed like nobody else had this kind of problem. Everyone was hanging out in groups, and she was always alone. Nobody paid attention to her. By the start of the year, Megan desperately wanted to fix things and find people who she could call her friends. For example, she went up to one of the girls from her class and asked her how her summer was, and she was like, “um, it was alright…” Then Megan said, “cool, mine was a little boring, but I learned a lot of new things! Like, have you heard that there is this kind of fungi called cordyceps, it grows on ants and other insects and, like, controls their minds. Cool, right?” She just looked at Megan, completely confused, said, “okay,” and went back to her phone. It was so embarrassing, but every conversation she had with someone would end in the same way. She asked one guy what kind of music he liked, and he just said, “I like a lot of different music...” And she didn’t know what to say to that, or how to continue the conversation. Why was talking with people so difficult!? Was there something wrong with her, or with them? She just didn’t know! Maybe she was just a bit TOO weird. She decided to change her approach and try to talk to people about something they would find interesting; to sort of change herself so that she would fit in. Mostly people made small-talk, and she thought that it was so bizarre that they basically talked about nothing, or showed videos or memes to each other, or discussed things that were popular, but Megan herself didn’t know anything about what they were saying, because she liked other stuff...Sometimes people didn’t even really talk to each other, but instead just kind of...hung out in each other’s company. Then Megan tried bringing people small gifts, like chocolate or something. You know, random but pleasant things. People in school were pretty happy about it, but it didn’t lead to any friendships – she was still just “that weird girl.”But then there was a golden opportunity – one of her classmates had a big party coming up, and everyone was invited. Even she was! So she got herself ready and went to the party. And, well...it happened again. She tried talking with people, she tried finding a way into their groups, to be a part of them, to just chat with someone, but it never went anywhere. Just a short dialogue about something meaningless, and then that awkward silence. Then Megan noticed a guy in the corner of the room – he was alone and he was wearing a shirt with a dragon on it, and he looked very...geeky. She was interested in him straight away. So she walked up to him and started asking about his shirt and...it finally worked! He was so happy that someone started talking to him, because he was in the same situation as she was. He said that he and his friends liked playing Dungeons & Dragons (it’s a role-playing tabletop game), so when he saw a t-shirt with a dragon on it, he bought it immediately. Other people thought it looked silly, but she told him that she thought it was awesome. They started talking, and she asked him, “Do you know about cordyceps?” And he was actually interested! Finally! He said that he usually didn’t even go to parties, but decided to go this one time...and regretted it. He said that he and his friends met to play Dungeons & Dragons and other board games every Saturday, and she could join them if she wanted, even though there were no other girls. She said yes, and went to play with them the following week. All the guys there were weird and awkward, just like Megan. She found the game really confusing at first, but it was really fun at the same time. She had finally found some friends! Megan later realized that she hadn’t been able to find friends because she was always trying to fit in, instead of embracing her differences with others and looking people as weird and geeky as she was.