h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In a personal sense (school, more's the pity), rather than the pressures of society etc:
from a certain age, people seemingly went homogenous. I was mocked because I didn't. So I instead began to do roughly the opposite of what 'everyone else' was doing. This they found shocking, offensive and even personally insulting- to think that anyone would invite mockery by placing a traffic cone on their head, for instance. I think they were slightly baffled- I was reasonably quiet and did good work etc. but I was also 'weird', 'mad', even 'retarded' despite obviously being cleverer than those hurling the insults. There was plenty of unpleasantness, but I always felt better when reflecting that they meant nothing. And it worked, because I gained some respect from other non-subscribing types, and even some Townies who would stop all their mates from insulting me when they were around.
Now I have friends who do the same, strength in numbers. When we are called 'freaks', we say 'Thank you.' I may feel slightly immature when I remember some of the things I did then, but I'll never have to burn a stash of photos showing me in Kappa gear. Joy.
(Kappas are actually a type of water monster.)
But then, you knew I'd say something like that.