How Social Anxiety Made Me a Better Person

In 1969, a kid has red eyes as a result of a genetic condition called ocular albinism, and he’s called a “devil child” by almost everyone in his more conservative Catholic school. Some of his teachers actually believe he’s a devil child. He’s bullied mercilessly. He doesn’t have any friends until he meets the only Black student in the school, who’s also a misfit for the reasons you can speculate in 1969. He also fits in with a girl who rebels against the strict dress codes and confines of the Catholic school and upends gender norms. The three of them gravitate toward each other as the school outcasts and misfits. This is the premise of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40159387" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell</a> by Robert Dugoni. I just finished the book and just thought about how there’s a part of the protagonist in all of us. Not all of us have red eyes, but all of us have something that makes us different from other people in our in-groups. For me, I can also say that’s my race as an Asian-American when I hang out with non-Asian peers. But saying that feels cheap and disingenuous. Sometimes, I felt a greater affinity with non-Asians than I did with Asians, because there was something different about me in Asian circles, as well. <a href="https://medium.com/invisible-illness/how-social-anxiety-made-me-a-better-person-d61a4de1970d">Visit Now</a>