Youngest cultural pressures

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Hey there Escapist. I just had a quick thought. Growing up I was shunned for being a Canadian who was shit at skating and therefore unable to become an NHL star. That was the ideal future for everyone in the playground. I loved hockey but was only ever mediocre at ball hockey. I also never joined any teams although I would gladly join a random game or enjoy the gym class games we HAD to play. From an early age I ended up not giving a f*ck about what people thought of my extra curricular activities. Cue years of musical theater school, dozens of bands and an awesome year of history club and I graduated just fine without being a part of the sports culture which dominated my small town (and still does).

That said, in some of my private moments alone in the classroom without a friend to chat to, I did feel left out and unable to relate. I still kind of feel that way in University (albeit for different reasons) but it doesn't deter me from going down the path I've set myself on with gusto!

So Escapist, do you remember what every kid wanted you to get into? Was it a particular sport or something more academic? We're a diverse community here so I expect not everyone here will have been mocked at for being terrible on skates.

 

[Foolery]

I'm a Canadian that doesn't care about hockey. I never felt pressured or left out. The only extracurricular sport I played in school was curling. People telling me how to play softball in gym class did piss me off. I actually ended up having to have a chat with the principal for cussing out my classmates over their unnecessary and unsportsmanlike attitudes.

 

[Weaver]

I'm a Canadian that doesn't care about hockey. I never felt pressured or left out. The only extracurricular sport I played in school was curling. People telling me how to play softball in gym class did piss me off. I actually ended up having to have a chat with the principal for cussing out my classmates over their unnecessary and unsportsmanlike attitudes.

I'm ALSO a Canadian and I ALSO don't care about hockey!

I never really felt left out though. I think enough of my friends just didn't care as well and we all liked gaming and nerdy shit so it was fine.

 

[Elfgore]

It's kinda funny. Mine is about sports only football (american). Since I was like six, everyone in school was talking about football. They would ask me about it and I was clueless. I hated football! It was boring and I found no interest in it. I finally caved in when I borrowed a NFL game from my uncle and started to like the Patriots. I followed them for a couple years and then played football in sixth grade. After that six month period of hell I realized I hated football and have never watched, played, nor given a general crap about since then.

Guess we are all breaking out country's stereotypes!

 

[Foolery]

I'm a Canadian that doesn't care about hockey. I never felt pressured or left out. The only extracurricular sport I played in school was curling. People telling me how to play softball in gym class did piss me off. I actually ended up having to have a chat with the principal for cussing out my classmates over their unnecessary and unsportsmanlike attitudes.

I'm ALSO a Canadian and I ALSO don't care about hockey!

I never really felt left out though. I think enough of my friends just didn't care as well and we all liked gaming and nerdy shit so it was fine.

My situation was pretty much the same. I also had nerdy friends to hang out with. We used to play Dungeons and Dragons on Sundays. Still do, on occasion.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I also had nerdy friends to hang out with.

That's what saved me. Considering the size of my hometown, it was almost a miracle a group of nearly a dozen people with similar nerdy interests existed during my time at school. There was a lot of pressure to join sports in my town because, quite frankly, there was nothing else to do worthwhile there after the school division cut funding to the arts and canceled band! >:c

Luckily my Dad is a music teacher and commutes to a larger city with numerous bands so I was instantly included in that side of Canadian culture. Best years of my life looking back at it, joking around with friends before concerts...

 

[Weaver]

I also had nerdy friends to hang out with.

That's what saved me. Considering the size of my hometown, it was almost a miracle a group of nearly a dozen people with similar nerdy interests existed during my time at school. There was a lot of pressure to join sports in my town because, quite frankly, there was nothing else to do worthwhile there after the school division cut funding to the arts and canceled band! >:c

Luckily my Dad is a music teacher and commutes to a larger city with numerous bands so I was instantly included in that side of Canadian culture. Best years of my life looking back at it, joking around with friends before concerts...

Where'd you grow up? Thunder Bay?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

SNIP

Small town Saskatchewan and no, no details given.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I'm from eastern Pennsylvania, and I was pressured to pronounce Mario "marry oh" from a very young age.

 

[Foolery]

I also had nerdy friends to hang out with.

That's what saved me. Considering the size of my hometown, it was almost a miracle a group of nearly a dozen people with similar nerdy interests existed during my time at school. There was a lot of pressure to join sports in my town because, quite frankly, there was nothing else to do worthwhile there after the school division cut funding to the arts and canceled band! >:c

Luckily my Dad is a music teacher and commutes to a larger city with numerous bands so I was instantly included in that side of Canadian culture. Best years of my life looking back at it, joking around with friends before concerts...

It's kind of a bummer when arts programs get cut. A few of us, including myself played guitar or piano, so that helped.
We also did a fair bit of hiking and camping. That's the one perk I liked about smalltown BC, plenty of hills to climb and places to look at.

 

[FPLOON]

Back when I used to go to a child care center, I was really good at playing basketball.. I mean, REALLY good, compared to some of the other kids there... Yet, after leaving elementary school and heading into middle school, it was then changed to hitting a rubber ball with your hand off a three-wall system like playing indoor tennis outside... Then, shortly before leaving for high school, I was in one play adaptation of High School Musical and a talent show... and all through high school, it was one musical after another, chatting it up with recurring cast members about this (at the time) new show called "Glee", while staying the hell away from (general) sports in general...

I would not say I was pressured to play a sport, per se... But, I was pressured to not be just be another black stereotype... and it worked, I guess... only I feel more like a white stereotype who grew up in the 80's, speaks IRL like it's the 90's, but lives in the "now"... as in mainly uses technology that relates to the early millennium... (or pre-2010...)

I am like a walking identity crisis... only without the pending amnesia effect and/or aftermath...

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Well, as a Russian immigrant in Belgium I mostly hung around other immigrants, most of them of Moroccan, Turkish or Polish descent. And 99% of them were really into football ("soccer"). So yeah, I was kinda pressured to play football.
The problem is that I was completely useless at it. I kind of became an average keeper, but yeah, never more than that.

I really hate the fact that football is so friggin' huge in Europe. I just don't get the general appeal of kicking a ball around for 90 minutes.

 

[Drummodino]

I'm an Australian who likes anime and video games. That should say enough I think.

I like sports too people! Stop judging my entertainment habits.

 

[StormShaun]

I'm an Australian who likes anime and video games. That should say enough I think.

While being the same in that aspect, I do have to admit that ...
I don't like our national sports. (cricket and AFL)
I played basketball/Tennis at school.

That was like telling someone to not be proud of you.

While thinking about it ... apparently Australia is know for drinking large amounts of alcohol.
I'll admit, I don't like beer and I only will ever like cider. (because of a certain anime)

This apparently makes me massively unpopular, nerdy, a loner and many other mean words.
But in this day and age if they said that to me, I wouldn't care ... I've gotten over all the bullying and shit people have thrown at me, but oh boy ... if they even dare to try and fight me, it won't get pretty. I'll be like Australia's own Casey Haines except with a fast pace and knives.

Being bullied makes you a very dark person. Especially if the words of "The nicest people are always the worst" are right.

*Shrug*
We all have our demons I suppose.

 

[Drummodino]

I'm an Australian who likes anime and video games. That should say enough I think.

I like sports too people! Stop judging my entertainment habits.

I'm an Australian who isn't that into Cricket. That's like walking into Germany wearing a Nazi Uniform and waving around an SS flag to some people, apparently.

We Aussies are... surprisingly passionate about our sports. Hell, being passionate about AFL is still not enough people over.

I've found it depends on what state your from which sports you're supposed to like. Victoria and WA seem to be mostly cricket and AFL, Queensland and NSW are more into rugby etc.

I'm lucky that I enjoy cricket, soccer and AFL or I think my Dad might have disowned me.

While being the same in that aspect, I do have to admit that ...
I don't like our national sports. (cricket and AFL)
I played basketball/Tennis at school.

That was like telling someone to not be proud of you.

While thinking about it ... apparently Australia is know for drinking large amounts of alcohol.
I'll admit, I don't like beer and I only will ever like cider. (because of a certain anime)

This apparently makes me massively unpopular, nerdy, a loner and many other mean words.
But in this day and age if they said that to me, I wouldn't care ... I've gotten over all the bullying and shit people have thrown at me, but oh boy ... if they even dare to try and fight me, it won't get pretty. I'll be like Australia's own Casey Haines except with a fast pace and knives.

Being bullied makes you a very dark person. Especially if the words of "The nicest people are always the worst" are right.

*Shrug*
We all have our demons I suppose.

I found that once I left high school and got into uni that the bullying almost completely stopped. I like to think that I also became a stronger person and I didn't worry about popularity and what others thought of me so much. My life got a whole lot better, that's for sure.

High school and even primary school were tough though. Kids can be cruel, especially to the shy, awkward introverted kind. Once you get away from that though and just start hanging with people you like, you realise how ridiculous and bullshit bullying is.

 

[DazBurger]

Im danish and since I was about 6 years of age, I have been shunned for not liking soccer.
Since I was 12, I have also been shunned for not drinking.
And yes, people start drinking at that age, around here.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

My middle school and high school were really...uh...Urban I think (that's probably the least racially inflammatory way of saying 'ghetto') so it was weird that I was more into Cradle of Filth, Phantom and, the Gravitation soundtrack (SHUT UP!!) than say...uh...I can't even remember who was big back then. I remember people at my older school popping-and-locking and I remember one of them trying to punch me when I remarked on their fine Irsih-style jig.

I could mention, once again, that person I knew who is now a Japanese Pop Star...but I would feel like Walter constantly talking about the good men who died face down in the muck so that young men and women could be free to leave the US so as to pursue their dreams of Japanese Pop-Stardom...*sigh* Also that was more of a one-person-not-at-all-pressuring-me kinda thing...

 

[DanielBrown]

When I was 13-16 I hung out with a large group of metalheads. We had fun together and spent most of our time being assholes and drinking alcohol. Around when I was 15 some new people joined the inner circle of our gang and they were those typical "true" metalheads, who only listened to thrash bands they considered to be "true". I listened to bands that they thought were shit, so they begun pushing me out of the group.
I tried listening to thrash metal, but generally found it to suck. The beats were weird and the quality was horrible on the old school stuff. Eventually they quit inviting me to parties, we fought and I've only seen them once since(eight years later and they were still douchebags).

It's quite ironic, however, since ~3 years later I rediscovered thrash metal and thought it was amazing. These days I almost exclusively listen to thrash and punk and I'm much of an elitist metalhead myself... and I agree with them that the music I listened to as a young teenager was fucking horrible.

And yes, as a young metalhead I got tons of shit for growing my hair long and dressing like I did. Fortunetly when puberty kicked in I grew up to be a proper Viking. No one has bothered me since then.

Can't really think of anything apart from that. I guess the fact that I've never been into sports count, since all kids during age 6-12 kept asking which was my favorite team.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Well, I live in Britain, but I can?t stand the taste of 90% of alcoholic drinks. As an 18-year-old male, at the majority of parties, I stupidly force myself to block out the poisonous sting at the back of my throat so I can get drunk enough that it doesn?t bother me, rather than being sober and having to repeat an awful night where I had to look after my drunk puking friend who kept punching me and shouting ?Lolly! Lolly!? at my friend Ollie.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Football.

Considering I live in the UK, it's pretty fucking hard to avoid (I even bought like, three PES/FIFA games, forgive me, I was young and foolish). I was always crap at football because I lack finesse due to my stature. I also just dont find it interesting to watch: I find golf interesting because there is less of the whole "my team is better than yours because of reasons" and it is about personal perseverance, rather than a collective effort, which I always tend to prefer.

I kind of stopped caring since, and I just avoid conversations about football altogether, instead preferring to discuss movies, games, lessons, the school, the future, politics, etc.

Basketball could also count, but I am okay at it, I always watch the Olympics/Euro Championships when my country participates, but I don't follow the NBA or pick up any of the specialist lingo.

I always managed to find a niche in my school's societies, so I guess I have been somewhat lucky in that regard.