airport edition

You go to the gay softball world series for many different reasons. Some people go for the games, they are the hardcore, the dedicated. They want to win and they will do all that they can to do so. This event was made for them. Others go for the experience. For the chance to meet up with up with other people who are like themselves but from a different state or country. No matter why, everyone should go.

If you were to say to me that I would go and have the best experience of my life, making true friends for life and never want to leave I would think that you were crazy. Luckily however it's how it happened for me. Allow me to spill my thoughts from this crazy once in a lifetime trip.

First off, Grindr I hate you. It's somewhat sickening to see almost every gay guy in Columbus checking his phone to see if someone has responded to them. It's even more sickening to attempt to have a conversation with a supposedly great friend where it's one sided because they are Grindr'ing instead of chatting. I understand that Grindr allows you to be who you are without having to embarass yourself with social awkwardness. But how are you supposed to improve your social awkwardness if you don't put yourself in those social situations? I had some great Canadians explain this to me a bit - for some people (like themselves) Grindr is a free outlet to keep in touch with friends, granted they see their friends business because hello it's all thrown out there for you to see, but where texting or phone calls can get pricey and what not Grindr is free and fast. Kind of like Yahoo chat but catered to the gay folk. I learned while chatting with them that my dislike of this social network is caused a bit by ghosts of the past. Knowing this helps but it still does not bring a desire to join the revolution. I'll stick to Facebook...it's safer :P

This week was a great way to be myself in a place where the fear of being judged was non existent. The atmosphere was relaxed and laid back, everyone was there to have a good time. This made it extremely easy to make friends with new people. A quick synopsis of our country is: East coast and West coast is coated with the most unfriendly people. The central states by far have the friendliest people in the world. Canadians from Toronto or Montreal have an air of betterness aboot them (yes aboot is spelled wrong on purpose). Canadians from Vancouver are by far the nicest people in the world.

I spent most of my week with the latter. Canada is probably the most liberal and free country in the world, granted they pay for it, but as a whole they are the most laid back. This makes their people very friendly and open to new ideas and experiences. Pizza on the lawn of the Ohio state capitol? Yes please. Seriously they are the reason this was the best vacation ever. It's always fun when you can laugh at every other word someone says because they're pronouncing it wrong :)

So I went on this trip in hopes of making better friends with my teammates, but I have to say that I'm sadly disappointed with them. The team is so disorganized that there were no team dinners and poor communication on when to get together. Best statement: It was high school all over again. This pretty much led me to search out the Canadians, thank jeebus for them! Don't get me wrong, I like my teammates and I really got to know a couple of them and I'm extremely grateful, but I realized that they definitely are younger than me. Also - see the Grindr paragraph :)

I'm pretty sure I'm going to write more about this experience and the trip as a whole...because I could talk for days about it. But this being the airport edition means that I don't have as much time as is required.

Best realization: I like who I am.