Yes! I love these little moments where there’s a sense of connection or camaraderie over something you’d previously considered … well, maybe even invisible! I just think it’s really gratifying. (I wonder if that’s how extraverts feel all the time?)

The blushing phenomenon is still just really interesting to me—maybe even more so after all these comments, because the general trend seems to be that people who blush typically get pretty positive reactions from the people around them, but still feel very uncomfortable and self-conscious about it. Which, I don’t know what it means, but it’s interesting!

As I described it to my mom, the current education system wants everyone to fit in the box. I see the box. I’ll look in the box. I want to know everything ever about the box, but there is no way I’m going to go in it.

That was also me! And because it was also me, it’s always seemed like such an obvious thing, that there would be this whole spectrum of people who aren’t motivated by praise or ambition or following instructions, but respond to less quantifiable things, like challenges or curiosity or desire to be of service to their communities, or whatever. (Unfortunately, not the number-one focus of schools …)

Not that I WANT to take over the world

Hahaha—yes! I like solving the problem of taking over the world. Once we get into practical applications though, I tend to lose interest immediately. And that is why I will never-ever be any type of overlord. (Also, I hatehatehate being in charge of anything except myself.)

The Big Bang Theory is such a weird show to me. I keep trying to like it, but then usually wind up turning it off, and I think it’s because of the laugh-track. Like, it’s right there all the time, insisting that Sheldon’s very thought process is somehow hilarious. He’ll say something out of the blue, like, “So, the problem with teleportation,” and then the laugh-track comes on and I’m still just sitting there, thinking “Wait, why is that funny? I want to know the problem with teleportation! Why is it funny that he thinks about teleportation? Don’t you ever think about teleportation, Laugh-Track People?” (Etc.)

It might seem conceited in that all of these characters are brilliant, but they’re all really bad at relating to people.

This is one of those phenomenons that I find sooo fascinating, and the only explanation I can really come up with is that maybe the more thinky someone is, the worse they tend to be at interactions that require a kind of automatic split-second comprehension (i.e., social situations, which are a neverending series of split-second comprehensions). Instead, strongly analytical people seem to get stuck … analyzing, when maybe it’s not even something that needs to be analyzed. Which might be why I spent most of high school and college constantly going off script and having people blink at me a lot.

I am an extreme blusher! It makes my face feel very hot, so I always know when I’m blushing. Talking about guys I like makes me blush, talking TO guys I like makes me blush (this is perhaps the most uncomfortable manifestation of the blushing, especially when it is mentioned to me during the conversation). The pressure of someone bringing attention to me, getting a question wrong in class, fighting verbally with someone else…almost anything vaguely stressful is enough to make my cheeks pink. It is super embarrassing and I am told all the time, like other commenters, that “you’re so cute when you blush!” or “you were blushing, that’s so sweet!” and it is MORTIFYING.

I’d never really thought about it, but you totally nailed it when you said that Valentine “understands how the game is played while not actually wanting any of the rewards for herself“, because that is so me. As I described it to my mom, the current education system wants everyone to fit in the box. I see the box. I’ll look in the box. I want to know everything ever about the box, but there is no way I’m going to go in it. Also, when we studied 1984 in English earlier this year, I think I terrified everyone when I talked about how the Party was going about it the wrong way, not taking over the world properly, and I set up a plan for how to rule the world most interestingly. Not that I WANT to take over the world, but as Sarah Rees Brennan once said, I do like creating and destroying worlds with my brain.

Foxface. God, I loved Foxface. Her method was exactly the same as mine would have been. I even won the Hunger Games writing contest, How Would You Survive, by emulating her strategy. I said I would hide and steal food, and run away, waiting until it was me versus another, and then I’d kill them from a distance with an arrow. (Because in real life, I am actually good at archery.)

Also, only recently have I become like Luna, totally unafraid of what others think of me. I greatly admired Luna for that when I was  growing up, and tried to emulate her, not necessarily trying to be ridiculous, just trying to be unrestrained by societal norms.

People often compare me to Hermione because I’m bossy and smart with bushy hair. I like to think I’m like her, but at the same time, she’s SUCH a predictable choice. 

I love C-3PO from Star Wars, because he is ALWAYS right and no one ever listens to him because he’s so obnoxious in his rightness. My mom says I’m a lot like him… which I kind of like. I mean, he’s undeniably brilliant and awesome and a rule-follwer, and though he’s totally annoying, he’s loyal to the end.

Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory is a lot like C-3PO, in that he doesn’t know how to deal with society and people, and also in that people often tell me I’m a lot like Sheldon. My mom refuses to call me Sheldon, saying that she will gladly call me Sheldon (and thus ignore my various social deficiencies) when I have two PhDs and a job like Sheldon’s.  So, yeah. He doesn’t understand sarcasm, he can’t simplify explanations, he’s really rude and rather self-centred, all of which I struggle with CONSTANTLY.

It might seem conceited in that all of these characters are brilliant, but they’re all really bad at relating to people. And I am so bad at social interaction. So so bad.

Mild Graceling Spoilers Below:

I’m also a little like Katsa from Graceling. She wants to be in control. She NEEDS to be in control, always. She never wants to marry, citing the fact that she never wants kids. I chalk that up more to the fact that she doesn’t want anyone to control her, because at one point she says in narration that she couldn’t marry Po because even if he gave her freedom, he would be GIVING it to her. It wouldn’t be hers. I’m a lot like that. I have commitment issues, attachment issues, and a desperate need to be in control. So I’m a lot like Katsa in that regard.

Graceling Spoilers Over

Unlike your list, I identify more negatively with my list. I really can’t think of a character with whom I positively identify.

So, this didn’t take me two years, but rather a week. Either way, I had to think about it a lot, and I’ll probably be mentally revising it for some time to come.

(I like these people because it shows that they are just as interested in the world around them as I am.)

Yes, yes, a hundred-thousand times! I love talking to people who take pieces of information and then combine them to make new information. Seeing how other people think is like the next best thing to a map of their brains!

I like it when people challenge my view of myself

For me, this was Wit—always. He was noisy enough and behaviorally-questionable enough to seem like he never noticed anything, but put him to the test and man, he cut right down to the heart of things.

I wish this would happen more often, because I notice all these things about other people, and the least they can do is notice everything about me, too.

Haha—I was always so frustrated by the fact that here I was, taking note of all these little tiny things, and then it seemed like one else was even retaining anything. The least someone could do was return the compliment! (Because it is a compliment. Although I’m sure there were people who thought the way I hoarded details was just very, very weird.)

I blush whenever my friends try and get me to gush about the guy I like

This totally spurred a long-lost memory of hanging out with friends when I was about 12. They went through a phase of teasing each other about different boys and saying “You’re blushing, you’re blushing, you like him!” And of course, the goal was to *make* people blush, and of course it totally worked, because it was really invasive and uncomfortable. But due to my no-blush physiology, it did not work on baby-Brenna. They would get right up in my face and say, “You’re blushing, you’re blushing,” and in true baby-Brenna form, I would just go straight to the facts and say “No, I’m not.”

(I was no fun.)

This is very much how I felt through most of high school, but especially the year I first started. (I’d been homeschooled my whole life.) The school was really big, and even though I knew it couldn’t actually be 100% true across the board, it still felt like everyone there already knew each other. And I think I would have had a much harder time if I’d started public school in junior high. (The nice thing about a really big school is, no one actually knows if you’re new or not—you might just be new to them.)

One of the things I had the absolute hardest time with was figuring out how to basically demonstrate the person I was on the inside, because it felt like unless I learned how, no one would ever see the things I thought were the important parts. Sometimes that just meant wearing the clothes I liked, but mostly, it meant talking to people about things I was actually interested in and making jokes about the things I thought were actually funny. Which also meant risking the possibility of some people not liking me or thinking I was weird. But it’s how I found the friends I really, really loved, so it was definitely worth it.

This is a quality that is so wonderful and so mysterious to me that it’s almost like a magical power. Like, it’s so foreign that when I was younger, it never even occurred to me that something like this existed.

I do put a lot of value on fairness and thoughtfulness, and I especially want to treat people kindly when they’re upset, because I think it’s important, but if we get right down to it … I’m actually a pretty un-empathetic person. Most of the time, when I find myself in sympathy with someone, it’s through observation rather than internalizing an emotion. I used to think I’d learn to be more empathetic over time, but now I just think I’ve learned to compensate for it in other ways.

It’s like there’s a missing piece to the interaction, I get nervous when I can’t see their expression or movements

This is so, so true. I never realize exactly how much I depend on nonverbal cues until I’m on the phone or even trying to get a sense of someone through email, and it’s like I’m only getting a tiny sliver of what’s happening.

I love this image because it’s just *so* surreal. And also probably because it wasn’t happening to me. (I hate when everyone turns to look at me.) It’s like something that belongs in a Wes Anderson movie, maybe. Something with a subdued color palette, but outrageous patterns.

I’m hoping that they just made the association because I was slight, quiet and a little morbid, and not because I or my loved ones somehow have an elevated risk of contracting tuberculosis.

Ha!

(Also, if it ever turns out you want to talk about the Jane post, it will still be there. There’s no set window on these things, and I’m in full support of taking the right amount of time to hit the reply button.)

Also, Luna Lovegood: literally the only character ever that multiple people have compared me to independently of each other to

Do you feel like people notice you for the true things—the ones you actually value about yourself? Is that weird? Gratifying? Do you wish it would happen more?
I am honestly not sure if people recognise the true aspects of me, mostly because I’m not really sure what those aspects ARE. I do like it when people figure something out about me that I haven’t specifically told them, cobbled together based on my views on other things and what I say in class. (I like these people because it shows that they are just as interested in the world around them as I am.) 
I like it when people challenge my view of myself and make me think really hard about who I am and who I want to be and where those discrepancies lie. (lay?) 
I wish this would happen more often, because I notice all these things about other people, and the least they can do is notice everything about me, too.

Also, are you a blusher? If so, what does it feel like? Can you tell when you’re doing it? And if you do blush, do you mind it?
I blush when I’m embarrassed, but only in very specific instances. I blush whenever my friends try and get me to gush about the guy I like. I blush whenever I’m hugely wrong in answering a quiz bowl question, and the answer is obvious to everyone else. My face is naturally quite ruddy, so when I blush, I just feel the heat rush to my face. (Not unlike when I get sunburnt; it doesn’t hurt, but I feel the heat.) I really don’t mind it, since I’ve learned to sort of control it and work through it.