Trivial 2003

The year 2003 is coming to a grinding halt.

Professionally this year has been a struggle.
(Eventually, I was able to secure a decent job but it took some doing.)

Personally, it has been a miracle.

And I owe it mostly to bar trivia.

I started keeping this web log around the time that I started going to trivia. This is not some happy coincidence. It is through someone I met at trivia that I learned about the phenomena of blogging. I would not have started keeping this blog, for what it's worth, if it hadn't been for the above mentioned person.

I made a whole bunch of new friends, due to trivia. It's amazing how many great people I have met as a result of attending a weekly activity that I enjoy. I even found romance. (I'll link later to romance's weblog, granted he's not embarrassed by this reference).

NB: There are people mentioned in this post who do not attend trivia but I credit trivia with it due to the butterfly effect of meeting the person who was patient enough to explain the term blog and kind enough to introduce me to the blogosphere. It's also worth mentioning that not everyone I've met maintains a website or keeps a web log so I was not able to link to them. I feel shy about mentioning names because I'm not sure how those people would feel.

Several years back, I started taking acting classes to help me with being more outgoing. That led to more socialization as well but not it the same way. I don't really enjoy acting so doing scenes every week was like torture. Admittedly, the practice of appearing in front of a group of people every week helped me in other ways. It's probably what led me to becoming a teacher, actually. Teaching was partially inspired by having directed some scenes in an off broadway showcase which I produced with some friends from acting classes. But teaching did not turn out to be the answer either.

Anyway, through trivia I have been able to make friends, appear in front of groups of people through the magic of co-hosting, and satisfy my craving for insanely detailed conversations which others would most likely find mundane.

Through trivia folk I've been learning that people are not defined by their jobs. Okay.....I learned this before trivia but somehow that lesson was reinforced by talking to new people. I've met quite a few people, who slog through their jobs daily to get to the fun stuff they do later that day.

Without delving too much further into myself for the benefit of making this point, that advice about doing an activity you enjoy to make friends and find romance, is true. Sometimes, like me you have to participate in many other activities (I only told you about the acting. there are others not worth mentioning) to settle on one you really like but hang in there.

Keep trying. It's just harder for some people but eventually you'll find your niche (if you haven't already found it).