Part of it is that most people are most people because the majority is most…so the banality of that impedes getting it right.
Everyone is awkward in their life, but they are “plain vanilla” awkward, so they’re writing a story where they are putting something that they can relate to in epic proportions without a real inkling of what epic proportions looks like.
I was abnormally socially awkward. That’s not a lack of understanding phrases (I was a major smartass, Quips weren’t a problem), but catching onto what people mean (motivations) about 3 steps behind where I should, being distracted by the conversation in my head and 3 tables over when I should deal with whatever is in front of me, being embarrassed by things that other people are not, having a high level of arrogance towards people struggling where I don’t…I mean, this is a major screw up.
Look, this guy asks me out to an early dance, I look at him like he’s grown an extra head and go “…No!!” Here I am, starting to slide towards overblown (I was in a DD cup), the guy is in sports, charismatic, cheerful…and so he asks another girl who is not as weird, but definitely just as chubby, and they go to this dance just fine.
But it meant that I walked into a class with him, later, and he’s teasing me about trying to come sit in his lap. I know he’s picking. I understand the words. I didn’t get his motive. By that time, I figured he had been serious about the dance, but he never asked again, and I wasn’t going to have “the talk” at that point. I must have turned beet red, when I told him, “I’d rather arm-wrestle you.”
He thought that was awesome, agreed to it, and I’m shaking my head, saying, “dude, you’re going to win…”
And so I arm-wresteld my highschool quarterback because I couldn’t fathom sitting on his lap publicly. I’m going with?! even 23 years later.
And it’s an iconic part of my graduating class: a pic of us arm wrestling made it into our slideshow, and everyone busts out laughing about it because everyone knew something was up with us, but that it was going nowhere.
All because I couldn’t understand him and he didn’t find my my confusion worth fighting.
And we both made it well, out of that. My husband has more hair than he does, and his wife is smoking hot. Lmao