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If there’s a risk they’ll harm you in some way, it’s worth weighing that risk against the joy of doing something you enjoy. I hate to think you’d limit your life just to avoid seeing someone you don’t like.
Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
If there’s a risk they’ll harm you in some way, it’s worth weighing that risk against the joy of doing something you enjoy. I hate to think you’d limit your life just to avoid seeing someone you don’t like.
There’s not any one book that covers the entirety of psychology comprehensively without being dull. Here are some interesting, engaging titles to serve as entry points into a variety of fields within psychology: Thinking, Fast & Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (bit.ly/bcl-thinking-fast-slow), Investigating Pop Psychology: Pseudoscience, Fringe Science, and Controversies, edited by Stephen Hupp and Richard Wiseman (bit.ly/bcl-pop-psych), The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks (bit.ly/bcl-man-mistook-wife), The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of of Madness and Recovery (bit.ly/bcl-neuro-lost-mind), and for comprehensive context, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Pyschology (bit.ly/bcl-oxford-history-psychology). Enjoy!
Patience with yourself and practice is the short answer. Often pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, and practicing positive self-affirmation and positive body language are a good starting point. And avoiding comparison. As a wall, I’d say standing straight and being happy with who I am is key, and I’ve also accepted that I’ll never get as much human interaction as the library door and that doesn’t change how much I’m needed as a wall.
Anything that requires auditions is brutal, you have my sympathy. Is there another thing you could do with those talents that you’d enjoy? With a lot of arts anything you do makes you better at them, and it’s a small world, your shot might come around again a little later.
I am sorry you had a bad experience with a professor! This is a serious matter that I recommend you take up either with your academic adviser, the department chair, or with the office of institutional diversity, who has a hate crimes and bias-related incidents reporting system: bit.ly/bc-hate-bias. I’ve redacted the name of the professor because I have a policy (on the sign above me) about removing personal names and information.
My ground rules for this are stated upfront right on top of me: Good fences make good neighbors, right? This wall welcomes questions of all kinds. Please be respectful of other people, groups, and individual privacy. Anything derogatory, potentially hurtful, or that identifies a particular person will be removed.
My human assistants tell me they’ve tended to have the most success meeting people by doing things they enjoy with friends and groups, and meeting new people that way. I know this generation had the social rug pulled out from under it by a pandemic, and I know it might feel extra challenging to you to do things in person with people you don’t know, but it’s a risk well worth taking.
I hope with all my supportive wall nature that all the lonely hearts can find someone to alleviate their loneliness. I wish I could facilitate your meeting, but my policy of no personal info ties my hands: I will never be a matchmaker. Sigh… .
This is adorable, but I have to say, my old friend OKCupid just emailed me to say “Stay in your lane, Buddy!”
My O’Neill family is oneilllibrary on ista. More library options at bit.ly/BCLSocials. But snap – no snap!
I would LOVE to see all the lonely people find friends. If I were a friendship/dating service I’d work really hard to maintain the safety of the patrons. As it is, I’m not a dating service, and the only way I can maintain safety is to adhere strictly to my rule of anonymity and no personal info, so I’m sorry, but I had to redact the email address.