Shallow is Only Only Fun When It's a Puddle You Can Splash In

Shallow people are not much fun.
I don't much enjoy being judged for how I look.
Well.. sometimes I do I guess if the person arrives at a positive conclusion.
Most of the time I just think its funny the assumptions or reactions people can have to me solely based on what I look like.
When I was in college, I was in this art class with several sorority girls. We were not friends. They didn't talk to me at all, which was fine because I was sitting with the funniest people in the class. For the last several years I have had the same general hair style:

This is me with a Princess Castle tent on my 21st birthday

The semester of that class I decided to get a hair, and I got bangs. My hair/hair style was exactly the same, except I had bangs:

This is me in Scotland, with bangs. Pretty much the same thing right?

So I walk into class with my new "style" and all of a sudden all the sorority girls want to talk to me. They compliment my hair, and ask where I got it done blah blah blah. A couple of them went home that day and friended me on Facebook. 

All of sudden I was more interesting to them, since I had a "stylish" hair cut. (BTW I have let it grow back out now bangs are not for me)

When I was in Scotland, my friend and I stumbled upon a themed bar, the theme being punk rock. Now first off why there are themed bars I'll never know, but everyone in there was dressed punk rock, tattoos, Mohawks, combat boots. Everyone was super cool and punk even the customers. So I decided it would be fun to mix it up and go in dress opposite of everyone. My friends in Scotland are amazing, and one of my roommates was always doing embarrassing things with me because we are cool like that:

We accidentally had matching hats

She agreed to me experiment. So one night I dressed up in full hippy gear, hand made skirt, peace signs, braids, vest, it was very believable. My friend choose to go the prepster look, and even tied a sweater around her neck. It was awesome, we looked very un-punk. We walk in, and everyone turns and looks at us. Ok. That was expected. What was not expected was the sudden change of atmosphere, people getting up and leaving and the server refusing to make eye contact. We ordered food and beers, and the waitress brought it over and just pushed it towards us, and wouldn't look at us or talk. The only person who talked to us was this drunk old rock star that has apparently toured with Areosmith.

Overall what started as a social experiment and joke turned out to be one of my more awkward moments. (which is quite amazing since I have racked up a lot of awkward moments) I was honestly shocked at how almost hostile people were towards us because we weren't dresses as them. 

I wanted to get pictures of us in these but I was so uncomfortable that we hurriedly finished what we ordered and split. I have since and prior to this done many little things messing with people and the reactions to someones appearance, such as playing in rivers wearing dresses, going to Walmart in 80's prom dresses from thrift stores, trick or treating the after Halloween and so on. 

The thing is, people are used a "norm" and when someone does something silly like string them from a tree or draw chalk dinosaurs on public sidewalks or stand on campus with a "free hug" sign people get weirded out. When people are weired out by something out of the ordinary like this, they react one of three ways:

1. Ignore

2. Get offended

3. Join in

When I was a college student, I would in between classes sometimes bring Playdough and coloring books and plop down in the University Center and play. Random people would join in and it was awesome. 

Being different gets peoples attention. As children of God we are set apart and have no choice but to be different, so we might as well go with it :)