Sometimes you just don't fit in

I recently tried an experiment.  It wasn't conducted in lab and I definitely didn't follow the Scientific Method that I used to teach kids in OE (Outdoor Education).

I only used 2 things: a razor and some confidence.

Relax, all my skin is intact and I'm not having suicidal thoughts up here on Tick Hill.  

After participating in No-Shave-November, my beard was really starting to get to me.  But instead of shaving it all off and fitting in nicely with society, I decided to try out the "Fu Manchu".  My goal was to see if people would take me seriously with this trimmed set of Handle Bars on my face.  I didn't change anything else about myself.  I wore the same clothes and acted normal.  Here's what I discovered:

1. People stared.............a lot.  You would have thought I had two arms growing out of my nostrils with some of the intense glances I got.  
   
2. It doesn't fit with my job.  I deal primarily with Youth Pastors, who are infamous for the Soul Patch, Goatee, Chin Straps, etc.  But the Fu screams out, I'M LIVIN ON THE EDGE!!
   
3. Other than Cops and Truck Drivers, no one else had one........which made me stick out like a traffic cone.
4. People thought I was joking at first, but when they saw that I was serious about it, situations got awkward.  Classic example of a Snickers commercial, "Want to get away?"

The only other time I've felt out of place was when I went to Kenya for a month and little black kids would stare at me and tug at any kind of hair within reach.  I felt more like a God than anything else.  They were fascinated.  But evidently I took it too far in the Northeast Corner of Oklahoma, where cut off shirts and mullets still reign supreme.