Teased For Being Me

My good friends tease me for being a combination of three movie characters: 

I thought I would work on a few posts explaining this. I am not exclusively like any of them, I am me. But my friends laugh, and I must admit they make me laugh about the things I say and do or the things that happen to me that resemble one of these three.

Today I will explain why my friends say I am the female version of Forrest Gump (I have a lot more to say on the other two characters!)

So the teasing began simply because I mentioned to my friends that when I lived out in Berkshire on a beautiful estate, one of my tasks was to keep the lawns in the formal gardens looking trim. To do so, I had to drive one of those lawn-mowers that Forrest drives in his job. So when my friends learnt this, they started to draw lots of other parallels between me and Forrest Gump.

I think I only saw the movie once…and I don’t think I saw it from beginning to end because there is a lot I do not remember.

Some of my friends think I am a tad gullible about people. Hmm – I don’t know. But I am someone who likes to believe the best in people, and does not give up on people easily. I can be extremely loyal and positive about someone. I am quite open (though I must admit, online I am a bit security conscious), but I am quite an open book in real life. I am also quite a mild, placid person, not easily provoked – I play dumb with aggressive people. And I do care about people, and have many times gone beyond the call of duty, as it were, to try to rescue someone.

My friends laugh at me for ending up in deep conversations with complete strangers. I might be out with friends but suddenly they find I have wandered off and am chatting with someone or a group of people I have never met about their beliefs or asking them questions. I know this may have happened on a few occasions, but it is not something I do deliberately. I do like people though. The thing about strangers is –  they are members of my family I just have not met yet, so they don’t frighten me as such. Until I feel threatened…but that is understandable after the crime I was victim of isn’t it? But I like people.

I think Forrest is famous for starting sentences with “my mamma says…”. As do I! Sometimes my friends will tell me about a decision they have made, and in my head I am thinking “what! are you nuts?” But to be kind, I tend to come out with something that my parents taught me as a little child and I relate how my parents would reason with me. So essentially I am giving my friends a lecture but doing so in the guise of my parents words of wisdom to me as a little one.

I also remember that Forrest did a lot of walking (or was it running?) at one period. This is something I am guilty of. It is rare now for me to have an entire day off. Of work, off socialising, off needing to clean my flat or do my laundry. But if I realize there is an opportunity for me to have an entire day to myself, my friends think that what I choose to do is completely crazy. I walk a twenty-two mile route. For those who think in metric, this is over thirty-five kilometres.

It is a route I love to walk. A circle around areas I love in London. What really provoked my friends is that one week when I was feeling really yuck after a week of night shifts, I walked that same route on two consecutive days. I am telling you, I am a walker. My legs don’t seem to get tired. Some of my friends have asked to walk with me, and I have told them before that I will only agree if they are happy to make their way home on public transport on their own if they cannot keep up with me. Several of my friends have tried but have given up half way and ended up jumping on the tube to go home.

I have always had a lot of stamina (because of the swimming we grew up with) and when I have been into running (mainly because I did not have enough time to walk at length – I prefer to walk because I can take in my surroundings, when I am running I am moving too quickly) I was fast. Some of my friends would run with me and tell me just to carry on ahead of them and they would run as a group behind. These legs of mine are like machines. I do have to limit my running now because it’s not unusual for me to have episodes where I am having breathing difficulties – one of the issues I have had after receiving head injuries.

However…although there may be some similarities between Forrest and me, I must confess that I never did get the hang of table tennis.

I can’t think of any other reasons why my friends say I am the female version of Forrest Gump…but this gives you an idea.

Well…it seems that most of my friends are in agreement that there is even more of Maria Von Trapp and Bridget Jones in me. I have been called Bridget Von Trapp for some time. I will explain more in future posts.