Solidarity, my friend. Growing up I was always treated as slow, inept, etc. People thought I was a stoner in middle school before I even smoked or saw pot. The way I talk has been described as part of the reason. A group of friends I went thru high school and college with would talk a ton of shit behind my back and even had a sort of intervention over, of all things, beer league hockey. I found out at one point that an old job would call going slow at washing dishes as "pulling a (my name)". Years after I worked there even.

You know what? I moved to an entire state by myself. I live in a beautiful city, with my incredible partner, in an awesome studio with our kitten Harvey Cooper Danger. My job is the best one I've had yet and it's only gonna get better. When I stopped hanging out with those people I was definitely lonely for a while, it was hard, but at the end of it, it's made things a lot easier. And now I have much better friends. It still hurts, sometimes. I get the feeling that some people still look at me that way. But if that's what they think of you, they're wrong -- and it's their loss.