Acceptance

I learned a fair bit from this trip I took to London. I realised how much I crave acceptance from others. It's funny how I have never really been sensitive to this before. I have never been sensitive to being slighted or despised because of my race. I have heard of racism from the caucasians before but it's either I really never had experienced it firsthand before or I am being overly sensitive during this trip. On a number of occasions I felt slighted by the people I came across with the worse being from the people in Paris. I have been warned about them not being very helpful to English speaking people by the landlady but it's another thing to experience it firsthand. To be fair, the majority of people were really nice as a whole but I suppose I was locked into the "black sheep" of the lot.

I traveled with a group of my colleagues initially and continued my trip with one colleague while the rest headed back home after the business was taken care off. To be frank I was often annoyed with my colleague due to the little differences we had. Trust me. I usually am pretty accommodating but for some reason, many of the little nuances bothered me. The worst was the fact my colleague chewed with his mouth open. That really irritated me. On a side note, while having dinner with my 2 nephews just now, I realised both of them chew with their mouths open. Eeewwww! The ironic thing is that their father (my brother) used to bark at me for chewing with my mouth open when I was really young. I suppose it's karma. :) Back to the topic. My colleague also made little comments here and there which irritated me as well. Frankly, they were not hurting words or anything but again just little nuances.

All these made me struggle inside. Here I am wanting and hoping people would accept me just as I am. Yet, I can't seem to extend that kind of acceptance to others. My conclusion at the end of the whole thing is that I am just screwed! Hopefully this will be just one of those freak incidences whereby my mood is just all over the place. Or maybe it's just the jet lag. Yah, it must be the jet lag......