The Diary of Mei

V

Today I got up early and left a note on my moms dresser-
I can walk to and from school. I will text you when I get there. Writing club is today so I'll be home late-ish.
I figured things will just be a little easier, and calmer when I got home if I was a little more independent. School went easy Uyu's lunch was reassigned to be with my lunch time. So we sat together. I was nervous about my latest writing project in our club.  I had chosen to write a piece on the the realities of a teachers life. I interviewed all my teachers, and tried to write what our school is like from the their point of view. They talked about their basic day, how to maintain respect from students, what motivates them, their struggles, average pay, overtime, and lay-off in the summer months. I was afraid it just wasn't enough information, or to much. I had uyu read all 4 versions of my report, and we both agreed on one together. To help distract me from my anxiety about the report we talked about the book we were reading in literature. We were reading The Outsiders, and he is actually really enjoying it I'm barely halfway through with a essay due on Friday.
One of my favorite things is hearing a stories interpretation from a different mind.

We talked about how the characters in the book had a close relationship bond that I would never expect from a group of young men. Literature often portrays men in a "manly" tone, and that is when we started to talk about what is manly. Men are always stronger, less emotional, and whenever a man shows more emotion he is called feminine. SE Hintons books give you a different perspective into men's lives. Not all men have a hard way about their thinking, or a less colorful way of expressing themselves. Men can care about their friends, and family just as much as women do. They deserve love, and attention just like everyone else maybe they just haven't experienced it properly. A lot of men treat each other with distance, and insults as a term of endearment when in reality they may just never gotten used to a hug at the end of the day. Saying I love you at night. An encouraging word to start a conversation.

Uyu said "I have always just been used to an insult or a just a few words from my father, but I know my father loves me. I wouldn't mind a hug from him every day, or for him to tell me he loved me more often. However whenever my dad does give me a hug it feels so unusual. Either something amazing is happening: like I bought a car for the first time, or got him an anniversary gift. But it's different how my mom hugs me several times a day over nothing, and everything. It's not that I feel my mom loves me more it's just that we are used to not showing so much emotion from man to man."

When Uyu told me this I felt sad. But he didn't show sadness. And it made me sad that he wasn't sad about this oddness. I decided to focus on this subject, "manliness" in my essay covering this book.