Nice Dude

You both like Advice.

You: Heyy M 20

Stranger: M 22. What's up?

You: Nothing much man, honestly just looking for company under a tag that isn't bots or sexual shit lol

You: You?

Stranger: Lol. I'm mostly just hanging out until I get tired.

You: Dope lol where you from?

You: I'm Tristan btw

Stranger: Jason. From Washington.

Stranger: You?

You: Tristan, from TN, going to school in Indiana

Stranger: Not bad. I'm originally from MY.

Stranger: NY*

You: Oh cool, where abouts

You: My mom is from upstate somewhere

Stranger: Staten Island

You: Oh cool lol never really been to much of New York

You: Only like upstate where we have family we USED to talk to lol

Stranger: Fair enough. I love NYC.

You: Lol never been. Idk how I'd feel about such a huge city

You: While I'm definitely no southerner, I don't think I'm a big city slicker either

Stranger: Fair enough. I traded a very large city for the West coast. Fun stuff.

You: Yeah Washington sounds like it would be enjoyable lol

You: What you do for a living, Jason?

Stranger: Currently going to school to become a doctor.

Stranger: You?

You: Holy shit that is awesome. Pursuing a BA in Mechanical Engineering to do God-knows-what at this point

Stranger: That's awesome! I still have years left for Med school.

You: Oh boy I bet, man. You still undergrad?

You: Or med school?

Stranger: Finish undergrad soon. Then, Med school

You: Nice

Stranger: What do you like to do?

You: Academically or like hobbies?

Stranger: Hobbies

You: I'm in one of the (probably biased) greatest university marching bands lol that's probably the highlight of my life rn

Stranger: Nice!

You: Also kinda a gamer? Idk only console I really have kept up on is 3DS cause I don't have time for shit

You: Brought my TV and PS3, haven't used either yet

You: I think my TV cable is still packed away lol

Stranger: Lol. I feel it running low on time.

You: Idk what else haha

Stranger: I love outdoor things. I like to swim as a hobby. Other than that just spending time around the area.

Stranger: Hanging out with my partner and all that.

You: Hey, pretty cool. Not as out-doorsy as I used to be. Partner? You engaged?

Stranger: Indeed. Male partner of more than 2 years. Not engaged. Yet.

You: Congrats man! College sweethearts?

Stranger: I guess so. Since freshman year. It was definitely interesting how that came about.

You: I'm listening!

You: You can tell stories, I'm just cramming Calc III

You: (I hate this subject, literally only class I'm doing bad but if I don't get at least a C-, I can't continue as an Engineer but yay mental health and ADHD and Asperger's and I'll rant later, tell your story)

Stranger: Lol. It isn't really that interesting. We became friends during the beginning of the year. I wasn't really out until that Winter but later on in the spring, we had the conversation how we had feelings for each other (since the trust was already there).

Stranger: Hey, you got this!

You: Oh did you come out to him? And maybe lol I may take an "L" on a Lab Report and just keep trucking on this.

You: Literally pissed at this class. How me sitting here doing nothing nabs me A-/B+ in everything else but a C-/D in a Gen Ed pisses me off

Stranger: Fair enough. I did at some point but I just ripped that bandaid off and told pretty much everyone.

Stranger: Yes, I didn't like Gen eds either.

You: Literally. Mechanics: A- :: Engineering Materials: B+ :: Aero/Mechie Lab: A- :: Irish History: A- :: Computing: B/B- :: Calculus III: C-/D

You: Oh so it was all at once?

You: Well good for you, man! How did the family take it?

Stranger: They were fine. The older folks asked questions but it's all good.

You: I don't know how other parts of the country works lol I was raised in a socially and politically weird way:: in the deep south by politically left/socially right Catholics

Stranger: Still excited to visit home for the winter break.

You: That's uneventful and lucky, man

You: Bringing him?

Stranger: No, because of money. But, my parents met him when they flew out here once.

You: Nice nice

You: I came to the depressing realization the other day that I have been single my whole adult life lol

Stranger: It's okay. It was a surprise that this came about. You'll find someone at some point.

Stranger: Make sure you find the right person.

You: I have tried haha haven't had the best luck even falling for girls, let alone finding one I can click with

You: I'm pretty oblivious, talkative, and socially clueless sometimes

You: Closest I have gotten...in my adult life...depressing to say lol...was this one girl in a pep band with me

Stranger: As am I. My charisma is close to the floor.

Stranger: How was it?

You: Amazing girl. See, my school is under the Congregation of the Holy Cross so many of our extracurricular activities are open to all three schools involved

You: Including the band

You: And my charisma varies, but is generally over-bearing haha

Stranger: Understandable.

You: So, yeah, pep band. She goes to the all-girls school linked with the congregation and didn't make the main marching band

You: BUT I still see her from time to time

You: Actually met her BEFORE I knew she was in the Hockey Pep Band on an extremely random, late, and sober night

You: Long story short on that one, dorm had an in-door frisbee tournament called the "All Knotter" that went from 12:00am- 4:00am

You: Went with a dorm friend and two engineering girls

You: Girls got bored and wanted to go to hip-hop night at the on-campus Legends/Night Club

You: (This school is weird, man)

You: On our way, we got asked by a random group of people if we wanted to play capture the flag.

You: It was only like 1:00am and the club closed at 3:30am so why not

Stranger: It seems to be a theme with college campuses. Random weird activities.

You: Come to find out it was a like "Rise against drugs/alcahol" club. And being a club, it was open to all of Holy Cross, St. Mary's (where she goes), and University of Notre Dame (where I go)

You: So we all chill for a while. As we are chatting, we find out Alicia (her) and her friend wanna go to hip hop night too

You: So after the game is over, we go with all of us: my dorm friend, Alicia, her friend, and my two engineering friends to Legends

You: We get there and it is a bunch of, as you'd expect, club dancing and grinding and such

Stranger: Fair enough. Typical club scene.

You: Which is, honestly, not my thing. Was also not her, her friend's, or my friend's thing

You: So we leave our original Engineering friends at Legend's and depart with Alicia and her friend

You: Wandered forever trying to find where they parked their bikes (Freshmen and she technically didn't go there)

You: Find them. Etc. Night ends. THEN I find out she is in band, head of the Sci-Fi Fantasy club, and Jewish Club

You: Start going to Sci-Fi often. Visiting her for coffee

You: REALLY seems like she likes

You: me

You: Is very open about dark shit (like how her first time going to therapy was at the age of NINE for suicidal thoughts)

Stranger: What's holding you back?

You: But all in all, we are very similar. Intellectual, social, dorky, etc

You: Nothing so I eventually break it to her and I have no clue what happened or how it got lost in translation, but here is what happened

You: So one night, we were kinda texting about relationships while I was smoking the occasional cigar with a few of my friends

You: She randomly brings up something a couple things and ends up saying "Yeah...I just felt like I was leading you on. I know it can be confusing sometimes since I'm so bubbly and such." and blah blah blah

You: So I was like, "Yeah I get you there. I'm sorry and I hope we are still close!" (cause I'm not about abandoning people that reject me)

You: And she said we were

You: OH I REMEMBER. She originally brought up another dude she likes to me and then said she felt she was leading me on

You: So NEXT day, she brings up dude again

Stranger: Dude that's really awkward. Sorry you had to experience that.

You: (OH just you wait)

You: And is bummed out and I said, to be encouraging, "Come on girl, you're an incredible person! I mean heck you even got me to fall for you!"

You: And her response..."Wait what do you mean got you to fall for me?"

Stranger: You need a hug. Lol.

You: So...somewhere, it got lost in translation, within twelve hours, that I liked her...WHY ELSE DID SHE SAY SHE FELT SHE WAS LEADING ME ON?

You: So, conveniently, I also fall asleep at that time...in the middle of the day

You: So not only is she somehow, even after the conversation and reveal the night before, JUST not finding out I am into her, I also fall asleep

You: So she gets scared

You: After I wake up, we clarify (except I'm still confused) that last night was me saying "Yeah I kinda am into you. Don't think you were leading me on."

You: And she pulls the worst friend zone ever

You: I was "blessed friend zonned"

You: She considers me one of the most important people in her life...but not a guy she is into

You: And was terrified during my whole nap that she had lost that forever

You: So after a year, I still can't even be mad.

You: Because I'm one of her greatest stable friends and I'm more important to her than I expected, but not in a possible relationship way??

You: So like, can never even be mad at her lol can't even be mad in my head cause I can't reason anger at that

You: So yay lol the end

Stranger: I see. Well, you took a really mature way through that. But yeah, it's possible to never have those kind of feelings for a relationship. It sucks but it happens

Stranger: You'll find someone though. You might not expect it.

You: Here's to hoping. In a very socially irrelevant spot so I need to work on that.

You: Long story short, mental health leave from the school for a year, dorm friends moved on, most Engineering friends moved on and/or are now a year above me, and really only came back to like my band-section friends and Alicia

You: Bar a couple exceptions.

You: So lonely life for now lol

Stranger: Fair enough. You can change yourself all you want but make sure the person you find is good with your real self. My partner understands my weird quirks and I understand his. It works better that way.

You: Oh yeah, I know. I just need to get ahold of my academic and physical/mental health lives first

Stranger: Fair enough. That's important.

You: Struggling adapting to two different diagnosis whose treatments worsen eachother

Stranger: Slowly but surely you'll find the right methods to help you. I thought one was hard enough.

You: Yeah it is just will-power at this point I'm sure

You: Basically ADHD and an unofficial (since you technically can't diagnose an adult) "on the spectrum of Asperger's)

You: ADHD meds amplify Asperger's, but are necessary for doing well in school.

You: Not taking meds makes me still socially meh and do poorly in school

You: Both take a hit at my drive cause it sucks living with both

Stranger: An interesting combination for sure.

You: But still, even being morbidly upset with the two of them, taking ADHD meds AND still being unmotivated is still allowing me to do AMAZING academically

You: So just have to stop procrastinating and fix Calc III first

You: Speaking of, you're STEM. Did you take Clalc III? Any resources for cramming?

Stranger: Fair enough. Powering through school isn't always easy. But it'll all be worth it in the end.

You: Oh yeah, I'm sure.

You: Goal one is to HOPEFULLY get to grad school so I can do either Bio Research or teach at a college-level

Stranger: Yes! I love teaching. It's definitely a back-up passion of mine

You: It was my original goal before I picked up Engineering (which I know I would also enjoy), but my semester off reignited my want for it.

Stranger: Having the passion helps push through school.

You: Yeah but my biggest issue is how much I'd enjoy different paths

You: At this rate, Teaching College > Bio Research > Regular Mechanical Engineering Research > Teaching High School

You: So my favorite role is teaching and requires a Masters. As much as I'd love teaching, I don't think I could bring myself to teach high school

You: So it is Grad School or no teaching essentially lol

You: (I'll brb)

Stranger: Nice. I think of it as life having different paths anyway. Through school, job, relationships, friends, among others. But yeah, no need to worry about grad school until the time comes.

You: I'm back!

You: But my biggest worry is GPA

You: Due to horrible mental health and no knowing I had ADHD, I have a Freshman year GPA of 2.36

You: Now for an undergrad degree, GPA won't matter because University of Notre Dame's networking is freaking amazing

You: So sub-3.0 Engineers are still pretty much guaranteed good jobs

You: But the GPA still hurts for Grad School or like research/internships

Stranger: That's good. Use that network to your advantage. Plus you still have a few years left to really bring it up.

You: Grant it, I still have 6 Semesters before I graduate (counting this), but I don't have that long to get other things like internships

Stranger: Even if it's summer before senior year, there's time. Give it a year but always keep looking though.

You: Thanks man!

You: Any resources for cramming Calc III studying?

You: Did you take that course?

Stranger: A year ago but I did not do well either.

You: Lol how bad, fam?

Stranger: But definitely reach out in class. Find a couple that know what they're doing. I got a C+ out of luck.

You: I'm gonna try lol it is just getting a bit too late

Stranger: Fair enough.

You: Tomorrow (Thursday) is MidTerm II

You: And the class is SO exam-weighted

You: Basically, there are a possible 500 Points max

You: 100*3 for all three midterms

You: 40 for Homework

You: 10 for going to Resuscitation Class

You: and the final 150 for the Final Exam

You: So of the 500, 450 are based on exams

You: 90%

You: So, as of now, I'm sitting at 39 for homework 9 for Resuscitation, and 57 for Midterm I

Stranger: For the future though, reach out even though it can be hard.

You: Now 57 may be curved according to my professor (the Math department is notorious for keeping the curve private), but if not, that puts me at like a D/C-

You: Which will be bad if I pull another 57 or worse on MidTerm II which is cumulative.

You: Oh I will

You: I'm gonna become the teacher's office hours pet from here out so even if I don't improve much, he may pity me enough lol

Stranger: Hey, whatever works. Lol

You: I will stay afloat if I can pull a 45% on this tomorrow...fuck lol

You: I'm gonna go get some food. Do you have any method to communicate again, man?

Stranger: That's the spirit. You got this. Unfortunately, probably not something I should do here. You've been fun though.

You: Fair enough man lol I get you, Omegle is sketch. Thanks for the encouragement :) been great meeting you

You: Kick ass at med school!