Otaku-Rants

I guess I'm going to rant about the frustrations I've been experiencing lately.  Perhaps it's just PMS, whatever it may be, it's bugging me a lot.  As I'm growing older, I'm growing more and more comfortable with myself as an "otaku".  I talk about it more openly, I write and draw things about it more frequently, and I also have been trying to watch it at least once a day, if I can fit it in my full time schedule.  It's making me happier.  I've been feeling a lot less stress and I'm beginning to suddenly figure out who I really am.

This is where the problem comes in.  I guess because when I was younger, I wasn't too open about being otaku because I wasn't sure if there was anyone quite like me in school or wherever I was.  Now that I'm sure there are plenty like myself, as I've said, I'm becoming more open.  Just recently, a friend of mine had pointed out to me that she "would have never guessed I was one of them."  At first, I took this as a compliment and laughed about it.  I thought it was funny.  It wasn't until a few days afterwards when she started referring to me as "the geek".  Mind you, she never called me this before.  It started to bother me.  Why am I suddenly someone different to her?  Because she never would have guessed that I was, in fact, someone who enjoys Japanese cartoons and video games?  I've noticed it's been happening more and more, but I never took it as a bad thing until now.  All of my friend who don't quite have the same interests as me are beginning to not want to associate too much with me.  "Because I'm different now."

I am the same person.  I can still hold a conversation, I can still go to the movies and watch horror, I still know how to have a good time just as much as the next non-otaku folk.  Yet why, because you found out that I like someone that's only associated with "nerds" or "geeks" am I suddenly different?

I don't want this to turn into a crazy venting blog post, so I'll just end it here.  I wanted it to just be a rant.  It's my thoughts on the matter.  Anyway, thanks for reading my rants.