Too Cool
(History of cool)
I was too smart and too sweet. Too smart to be considered cool and too sweet to be date-able. As an adolescent, that is the worst combination. It's like being able to do anything because your super famous but you can't go anywhere because you are super famous.
I couldn't socialize with my peers because who wants to talk about love, relationships, Jesus, real estate deals and the new world order when you are trying to get “som' butt”. It wasn't any better with my female peers. I was too sweet. I was the male equivalent of snickers bar ice cream sundae. A girl once remarked: "He would probably get more girls if stopped speaking to them as friends." I told my female friend who relayed that message to me that I was trying to start a Justice League on campus, and that girl just lost out on being Hawkgirl. Being in these two extremes growing up was a disaster or so I thought but in the end these two qualities have served me well. This duality kept me from train running, selling ecstasy and other perilous activities.
Let this brief message encourage that people who were not cool enough to fit in growing up; they probably don't fit in as adults. They walk the harder path: they think before they act, they actually listen when people speak and comment appropriately, they care about others and want to treat people the right way. Those choices make sense now and will in the future and even did back then.
Be who you are. Be who you are called to be. Be uncool.