Dynamaso wrote a little sumptin' sumptin' about good manners, and in one part, stated that by simply keeping one's mouth shut, a whole lotta drama can be avoided. He was pointing at the divas, the showboats who DEMAND attention, but I think that, similarly, a whole lot of grief can be avoided by losers who don't know why they're not well liked.

A girl in my class, while out on smoke break, mentioned that she wasn't well liked as a child. "Really?" I asked, trying to sound sincere as possible.

Our training class, by the way, had divided itself up by the end of the month into two groups: the group that would probably be considered cool, and the group that, well, wasn't. It doesn't matter which side  I was on, as I had the class age average beat by 18 years. I didn't get much involved in their affairs; I'm nobody's facebook friend, and I didn't go the the class party or afterwork tokes. I mean, I definitely got on with a few people in class, and while they're not close friends, it's just separate. It's clearly noticable when the girl who I hung out with most during training mentioned that her mother was only 3 years older than myself.

It was interesting to watch the class from that type of perspective.

The 'cool' side was loud. Loud during breaks, loud before and after class. After parties were arranged and lots of gossip flew in the air.  The 'not-cool' side was pretty quiet in comparision, but during class, man, it was a bitch to sit through as they constantly questioned or remarked on topics being discussed. While everybody in the whole class seemed to have a good handle on what was being taught, it was the 'un-cool' side that slowed things up with relentless stories about past calls, past experiences on the job. A simple chapter on troubleshooting devices that should have only taken about 15 minutes maximum dragged on to the forty five minute mark as those people eagerly discussed the challenges they had faced, repeating conversations word for word.

And when the two sides began to interact, it was excruciating to see how real-life conversations went, with many of them ending with nods, and then eye-rolling from the 'cool' person.  Sometimes the 'not-cool' just gave out way too much information much like the one where she told me she had been very unpopular.

I've enjoyed my time in class, socially speaking. I will smile and say hi to almost everyone that was in it, but once I get back onto the floor, on my own team, away from them, I wonder which person has had the most effect on me. I find that only time will tell. You never know about the people you newly meet. People come and go in your life, and the people who you work with on a daily basis may not be friends for the long haul, but someone to pass the time with anyway.