Tales From the Loop

When you read, you travel thousands of miles to foreign countries. You speak with mad poets and discuss the meaning of life with philosophers who died hundreds of years ago. You have secret rendezvous at Alpine peaks and shootouts with Russian agents. In real life, you wish that your pimples would not show as much as they do, and you long for the day you will leave this place, so that your real life can truly begin.

You know exactly what is important in life – to break the record in Super Mario Bros, to build revolutionary programs on your computer, to understand how a robot works, or to cast just the right spell to save the party during roleplaying nights. Who cares what all the others think?

Your classmates smile at you because of your tan, your pronunciation and your jokes, but what does it matter when you get to go out in the fields and the woods every day? The smell of corn and the grateful sounds that the cows make at morning milking have been a part of your life since you were born. You know how to build and repair an engine, how to drive a tractor, and how to hunt and slaughter animals.

You feel at home in sweaty locker rooms and at lit training fields in the autumn darkness. Nothing beats the feeling of a perfect shot, the aching muscles after training, and the companionship with teammates. You wish everything in life was as easy.

It is you who decide what is lame and what’s cool in school, and you know who’s in love with who and who did what at the kiosk on Saturday night. Others listen when you talk, and you’re used to being liked. It doesn’t matter why they love you, just that they do.

It was a worn cassette tape that changed your life. When that song had finished playing, you had found a home. You are an insane hard rocker who is high on life and play music so loud that the windows crack. In any case, you wish it would be like that. But you’ve just learned to play a C on your electric guitar and soon you will form a band down at the recreation center.

You’re a tough guy or girl who never holds back. Your classmates are afraid of you or look up to you, the teachers hate you, and everybody is nagging you to change. But they don’t understand that you don’t live in the same world as they do. When life turns on you, humiliates you, and hurts you, there is only one thing to do. Fight back.

They make fun of you for your clothes, your interests, your choice of words and call you “weirdo”, but you don´t care. They know nothing about your thoughts and feelings, or what you’ve been through. You want the world to see that you are different. One day you will outshine them all.