In an office full of creative geniuses, I am the statistician often telling them their brilliant ideas "won't work" or as they call me the "Accountant". In a site full of sparkling wit and deeply involving blogs, I am the dreary wallflower. In a family of shockingly beautiful and brilliant women, I am the "black sheep". In short, if life were an election campaign, I'd be Florida- the one who everyone starts hating at the end of it all.
It was the first weekend after I came to America when a man approached me in a bar. He didn't offer me a drink, or ask me about my major. He simply asked me- if you were a State, what state would you be?
Now pardon me and my Asian sensibilities, but that struck me as odd. I have seen articles, statements, and even endorsement speeches that compare people to the wierdest things. Obama is like California, Hillary is like Ohio...and McCain is like Paranoia (yes that is a state) and that is okay- except the terms are odd.
We Asians often engage in such comparisons, but even we do not take it as far as the western world.We have the good ones- eyes like a lotus blossom, skin like moonlight on sand, that kind of pretty, poetic stuff.
We also have the strange ones. One woman was described as having eyes like those of a striken fawn. Now, maybe that means big and expressive to most of my brethren, but I can't help but thinking her eyes looked like a baby deer three seconds before the SUV hit her. And that doesn't seem flattering.
But physical descriptions are arbitrary enough. When the analogies go into the personality territory- it gets far more wierd.
The entire- If I were a state I would be X, if I were a flower, I would be Y, if I were a musical instrument I would be a ...you get the picture. And the adjectives are usually quite subjective.
You will get the "I am like Kansas because I am sensible, hardworking and oldfashioned." You rarely get the more objective description..."I am like Kansas because I am mostly flat and my vayjayjay is called Topeka".
Why not?
Why are you like a tiger lily because you are "mysterious and exotic" AND like an orchid because you are "mysterious and exotic". Can't we dedicate one flower to the entire "exotic and mysterious" meme? And why doesn't anyone compare themselves to a less than favorable plant. Why not...a turd blossom?
We take one thing and we tend to attach to it all the things that we wish others to say about ourselves. Or rather we don't see red states and blue states, but what is available as an analogy or metaphor for those of us who wish to honor both ourselves and an inanimate object.
So...I am sure there is a US state, a asian country, a breakfast food, a flower, a virus, a presidential candidate, a serial killer, and a act of violence that is just like me waiting to be discovered in quizzilla or the like. And so do you for that matter? Is there any comparison that you thought that helped you? Or is this a western thing...like my ex roommate who said she was like Jack Kerouac puke? (It may have been from Jack Kerouac but it still feels like puke)