Am I an Apple product?

[fbhjr]

My summer intern made origami during meetings and when she was waiting for
her computer to load things. We had not given the interns very good
computers, so by the end of the summer she had a lot of pieces sitting on
her desk.
While I told her she should auction them off for college money, she let
people take them if they wanted them.

Green Eggs took a cube made up of smaller 3D Tetris like pieces of
different colors. When he brought it back to his desk, it fell apart into
the component pieces.


As I talked with him the other day, I poked at the pieces some, moved them
around a bit .
“There is a Youtube on how to make it back into a cube,” he told me. “Do
you want me to show it to you?”
“No, that’s OK,” I said and then went back to what had been doing.

A couple of hours later, I came back and put them together into the cube.


“Did you watch the Youtube?” he asked me.
“No. I pondered them a bit while eating lunch as I read the news,” I told
him.
“Then how could you have done it so quickly?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I thought about them and it made sense.”

I told my wife about this and how it seemed strange to me that he was
surprised I could put them together quickly.
“What do you expect?” she asked. “You don’t think the way other people
think.”
“I’m an Apple product?” I asked.
“You ‘Think Different’,” she said. “But, you aren’t an Apple product. You
just think of things in a different way.”

This bothers me.
I’ve known it was true since I was 6 and they tried to drug me to act
“normal”. I very clearly remember the best advice my mother ever gave over
Christmas 1969.
“If you pretend to be normal around other people, you won’t scare them and
you won’t have to take the medicine any more.”

For the 16,695 days (88.18% of my life) since I was given that advice I do
a lot to follow it.

So, it bothers me if I am forgetting that and not using proper care at work.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the way I think. It has proven to be very
useful.
Being able to think of how 3D shapes fit together is a major part of my job
as a mechanical engineer.

But, after almost 46 years, I have not forgotten the taste of that Ritalin
I was given back in the end of 1969.
Being different is what convinced them to give me that.
I don’t want that again…

Comments

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

Since I don't really have a mechanical mind I would have thought that you "think" like an excellent engineer.

That and the average ideal of normal is really quite boring.

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

THIS

[manue7a.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you have internalized acting 'normal' so much that you still try to hide being yourself.
After more than 40 years 'being like you are' should have evolved into the new standard for 'normal' in your world, because you're just right the way you are.

Being scared of anything 'different' is instinctive, but after realizing there's nothing dangerous about it, there's no use for fear anymore. That's common sense and not your responsibility.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I understand.
I am surprised to find I still have the reaction after all these years.
But, I do.

[brickhousewench.livejournal.com]

Some people are just good with puzzles. Some of us are Vulcan with the Logic.

When I worked at Barnes and Nobles and the Phantom Menace came out, there was a huge push for the DK Star Wars books. They sent us a while lot of cardboard droids that were shipped flat. Someone in the store had to punch them out and assemble them for the displays. There were a couple of the Imperial solider droids, a couple of the pod racing pit droids, and a big rolling Droideka that was the size of a damned VW (we didn't put that one together, we didn't have room). I assembled all four of the small droids in the manager's office one Sunday afternoon. Then I went to one of the other stores where one of the employees was complaining that it took them four days to put their display droids together, even after watching the How To DVD.

"There was a DVD?" I said...

[malterre.livejournal.com]

This makes me chuckle.

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

That's a horrible thing to do to a child. =(

I hope you feel more comfortable with yourself and eventually stop internalizing what you feel is normal and not normal. *hugs*

[cosmicirony.livejournal.com]

Your abilities and differences are fascinating and delightful! So glad you got good advice that let you escape being drugged.