The Mind: Differences in Process of Thought and Stereotypes

I hate to play the victim game. You know, the one where people say, "Oh I'm a victim of circumstance," or, "It is not my fault, it's just the way I am."I hate playing that game, or using that excuse. But for once, I think I will.So first of, what am I the victim of. I am the victim of my mind, the biological process in which my very brain works and processes information. I find I am very much like my own father. My father is a genius. He can read a book and understand it fully, and the best part is, he can apply it in real life. He take what he read, and put it to work with his hands.I find I am very much the same way. I can read anything, memorize it's content, and then use my hands to apply the information I have learned.Now your probably saying, how is this a problem? How are you a victim?Well I'll clear this up right here and now. I love my mind. I love how I can read anything and absorb the information. Many people out there can't. I love how I am able to apply the information as well.All through my mechanics school I was constantly badgered and stereotype as that guy that is a bookworm, but he won't be able to do squat in the shop. This really made me angry. It got my boiling inside. I grew a big disdain for those people. But I am also very forgiving, and those same people are really good friends of mine now. But at that moment that I heard them talking about how they would "like to see how I was in the shop" with that attitude about them, I really, really became hurt and angry, and resentful.Why should I not be good in the shop. I have grow up on a farm working with my hands. I have worked in two shops before I went to school, and each employer loved my work. I took shop class in high school and got great grades. There was no reason that I wouldn't excel in the shop, applying the information I read and absorbed.But lets look at society. Society has to stereotype everything. It makes people feel safer, like they know the world and have it categorized. Organization makes people feel safe, because they feel they know what is going to happen next. They feel like if everything is categorized they can avoid injury, gain success, all by making choices on the different stereotypes in the world.So there I was, the bookworm, the "by-the-book-guy", that would fail miserably in the shop, as everyone was predicting. I'm very much like my father. And my father loves books, and he also exceeds in the shop. He worked on the rigs and became an operator, in charge of his own crew. He does all his own farm equipment repairs, and everything he has learned by reading on his own.So now I am working in the shop. Ya, I've made a few mistakes since I've been working. But I'm also on my work experience time. It is my time to make mistakes as I learn how to be a mechanic, and the best ways to apply the information I've learned. When my superiors have talked to me, assessing my knowledge, they were quite suprised by what I could tell them about the subjects they wanted to know about. They told me most students just sit there with a blank look. They can do the jobs to fix stuff, but they don't really know why.I like to know why I do stuff, and because of that I ask questions. A lot of questions; which has also gotten me teased a couple times already and mocked. But I know how things work, and what I'm repairing and why. And I think this is a good trait to have. My superiors notice it. I feel more confident in my work. And anybody that mocks me can shove it.So what has all this to do with the mind and how it works?Well, like I said, my father and I are very much the same. We love to read, we absorb, we can apply. It's a good gift. But we also are very much slow when it comes to speaking our mind. I can write my mind out on paper as I am now. So can my dad. When you get me on a subject, I can talk your ear off.But when it comes to things that are spontaneous, like a witty comeback to remark by a friend, or responding coherently to a question, that is where I fail, and much with my father as well. Like I said we are very much the same.If somebody asks me a question, I will answer as fast as I can. Because if I don't then usually people prompt for the answer. Then they get annoyed, or I do cause I need time to think of the answer. So usually I try to blurt it out. I'll know the answer, but I need to form the words to say them. So lots of times the words will come out jumbled and incoherent. If they just gave me like 10 seconds, I could have the words formed. But people want things fast.So there it is. My father and I. We aren't stupid. We are not idiots. We are smart. We just don't portray our smarts. Most people meet me and make an assumption that I am a big slow guy. That is what stereotyping does. And once you are stereotyped, it is basically impossible to get out of that rut.So I'm not sure what to call the process of thought my father and I have. But as you can see, inside our minds, our brains are working fast. I always have ideas, I always have different topics I'm thinking about. Get me speaking on the fly when I'm not prepared, and I'll be a jumbled mess. I need to think about stuff before I say it, or do it. If not I'll mess something up. I need to organize my actions before I act.Although as I said, I'm not good at speaking when rushed, I am good at impromptu speeches. Not sure why. But in 4-H, they could give me a topic, and I could talk about it, on the fly, for minutes at a time. I also won awards for my speeches. But I think that is because I was focused on doing an impromptu speech. I prepared my mind for it.In high school, most of us have done those learning tests that tell us how we learn best. There are those that learn by reading best. Those that learn by doing best. Those that learn by listening. Those that learn by seeing.There are many types of people out there, and their minds all work in different ways.Some people have very quick minds, very slow minds. Some people forget things easily, or remember things easily. Other people can't pay attention. Some people just don't take a hint and can't read other peoples body language. Others can read people very well and interact well because they know how to act by reading the actions of others.The combinations are endless. These categories of the mind can differ so much in fact, that I believe it makes it very hard for certain people to communicate with each other. The most extreme example would be like a dog and a horse trying to talk to each other.Of course it is not that bad, but as you can see, the communication almost lacks that much. I have had simple conversations with people, where the other person just did not seem to understand what I was saying. I spoke plainly. Nothing complicated. The person would not their head in agreement to my ideas. Then they would speak, trying to compliment the idea with their own, thinking we were on the same page, but totally off topic to what I was saying, or on the opposite end of the spectrum.This is nothing bad on their part, it is just how their brain works. But I think this lack of synchronization of the minds of the billions of people in the world, is possibly the cause of wars and other man made disasters. When ideas don't match between two groups of people, often other people get fed up with the other groups interpretation of an idea. They end up fighting, and there you go. Trying to change the other peoples minds by fighting them won't do anything. It is just the way they believe things should work.The culture of many people is what develops the mind into what it is. I believe that everyone is a victim of their mind to an extent. I'm not saying people can't improve. They can always keep learning, they can always improve on their lifestyle. I think though, that we are all victims of stereotyping. How we display our personality on the outside is how people will always see us.Our minds are our place to hide. What goes on inside our brains, others will not know unless we tell them. How we display ourselves is what people use to put us in a category. But our outside display also will be influenced by how our mind works. I am smart on the inside. My brain works fast on the inside. But my outside appearance is slow. I am slow to react to unsuspecting questions. I'm not fast in the social scene. So my outside appearance is a big slow guy, that sticks to the books. But I'm not. I am good with my hands and I have confidence in my work.So how do we keep away from being a victim of our minds, a victim of stereotyping. Well, we are all victims of it to a degree. Sometimes it works in our favor. Sometimes it does not. But if people want to change their outward display of personality, then they have to work on their personality. They have to prepare their outward display, their appearance. In a way, you have to act. You have to act how you want people to see you. And eventually that act, it will become who you are.But I will say now, it is very much a difficult task. Because twenty four seven, your mind has to be switched on to the new persona. And of course while your mind is occupied with that, you also have to keep up with all your other daily tasks.People do it. It can be done. But if your happy with who you are, then why change. Besides it will cause a bit of a headache if it is a drastic change, because all the people that know you now, will be wondering what got into you. They may even be a little offended by the change.It is always a decision that you have to make, and it is an important one if considering changing our outward display.Now some people will say that changing how a person displays him or herself is not a good thing. That we should "Be ourselves" Being ourselves is being what we want to be. If you don't like how people see you, how they react to you. How they stereotype you, then change yourself. Your not changing how your mind works. You are just changing how people see you. How they react to you the first time you meet them. How they will stereotype you.Eventually the new you will become the message of "be yourself" and you won't even have to try anymore.But that is enough of this article, or rant, or whatever people want to call it. To some it up, everybody processes things in the brain differently. What we are stereotyped with is the outward display. And often the stereotype will be wrong, because people can't see into your mind. They can only read the outside. So if you want to fit into different categories- because they will always be there, there is no running away from stereotyping- then you have to change the outside display. You have to change how people see you.