Confessing my strange interests

[Drkmcnamara]

Ok I know ever since I got here all I have talked about was my depression and my frustration over sex, coming out and making friends.
Well I must confess there is way more to me than that and I actually do have interests and a life outside of my problems with being a young gay neophyte.
The biggest thing of mine that I am passionate about is History. I love history, love studying it, talking about it, gathering insight from it and helping others see the value in those who pursue the study of the past. It is actually my major at college, my proudest moment in me studying this field was an internship I took up with the History Department assisting a former professor of mine who was busy working on her Ph.D dissertation on the role and impact of women in the court of the early Han Dynasty. I translated a lot of documents from Mandarin Chinese into English for her. (I learned how to speak, read and write Mandarin Chinese in my time at college too) The documents I got were already translations though since there is such a great divide in classical Chinese to the modern language that only a real handful of language specialists can translate classical into modern. None of them know English however, that is where I come in to translate their work of a primary document from modern Mandarin into English. It was hard work but for me it all felt so effortless because I loved what I was doing and what I was helping achieve.
I loved it all so much that I have a tendency to ramble about what I did. My former professor of whom I was working for at the time was, at the end of my time interning so impressed by my work and the dedication I put into what I did as a research assistant that she lobbied to get the head of the Department a special commendation for me which I did get, in addition to an honorable mention by the President of our University.
It made me real happy when I achieved that, it is things like that too that convince me that for all the flaws I have I am worth fighting and getting better for.
I have a great interest in Chinese history and I would like my professional concentration to be China in the late 19th century particularly the Tongzhi Restoration.
I have other interest but it would be better to just break things down and come out with this first lol.
So what do you all think about the Derek that is not down in dumps but rather is a guy who has a lot of unconventional passions like this one?

[MisterTinkles]

You should talk to Mr. Chase on here....he is a history buff too.

What kind of job do you have? You might look into being a translator at some government offices or something like that..........they usually pay good for translators. Right now you are in a niche market, because there is not many people who speak Chinese, so translators are needed.

If you know how to work the market, you could get a really nice, high paying position as a translator.

Anyway.......

I don't think having history as an interest is considered strange. Now if you had an interest in the history of torture devices, then THAT would be strange. (hush up BA)

I don't know if they would be considered strange, but I liked to collect percolators and irons when I was little. I thought they were fascinating.

I still find percolators fascinating, but I cant collect them anymore.
I liked Russian history when I was in high school.
Im an astronomy fan too.


Other than that, I collect (when I have the money):
High end Barbie's
Garfield
Wonder Woman
some Cat Woman
Boy George


My only other interest is ruling the world.
Which Im still working on.......

[747XL29]

History is cool .... read so many works of history over the years I cannot even begin to count. Makes you a well rounded person. Cool.

High end Barbies too..

[partis]

hi drkmcnamara

I like history and few others do, you need to speak to southbiochem… he knows about everything that ever happened.. and is a biochemist… and a posting slut… i dont know how that boy does it! :p

And i like this derek!

[Chase]

You should talk to Mr. Chase on here....he is a history buff too.

Don't say such things. I've never passed myself off as a historian. I'm in engineering, not history.
Direct him to Jovial, not me.
Jeez Louise Tinkles.

[driftwood]

There certainly is more to you than your depression and frustration. History, Chinese history, and accomplished translator from (modern) Mandarin to English. Those are pretty impressive accomplishments for someone so young. Well, welcome to Gayspeak. I'm sure you'll be able to contribute much to our forum.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

God, I feel like such a failure now... I forgot the ten words of mandarin I learned decades ago...

LOL

[southbiochem]

^I assume your professional are of choice will also cover the First Sino-Japanese War!^ You need to let me read your work on thaaaaaaat

hmmm....if you're weird I'm weird..son of a History teacher here, no brainer I suppose

although I tend to focus on way too much on Europe...and wars...

which also makes me kind of a psychopath..:biggrin:

[loserguy]

And guess what?

Being positive and having interests makes you more interesting and attractive to a lot of people :-)

[findingmyway]

Way to be yourself. Don't let yourself hide away. We like the real you.