Soon as they threw the maple leaf on my shoulder, all of a sudden it's not only stepping-to, it was with a smile, a sense of urgency.

I remember when I was 16 talking nerdy shit with my friend in school. This is the only guy I know with whom I can talk about other stuff other than getting laid and cars and other average not-nerdy-bullshit. Finally, I've met a guy my age! Finally, I don't have to talk with adults about these subjects. I had always been a short guy, but now I had grown taller. No beard yet, though, so I look like a tall twelve year old. My friend, however, is from somewhere where every guy gets a full patriarch's beard at the age of 13. If he didn't shave daily, strangers mistook him for a terrorist; which I thought was funny. I still can't grow I beard. No point in trying. Whenever we had our conversations about whatever intellectually demanding subject, wherever we nerded ourselves into, and people overheard us, everyone, fucking everyone payed so much more attention to what he said. Annoyed the shit out of me, and he thought is was funny. He understood me, and argued against me, I understood him and argued against him, but everyone else who were just overhearing us, they agreed with him. Because of his damned beard, and my baby-face chin. They didn't understand either of us well enough.

Today, I still look young, but I'm much more ripped, and everyone notices that I and my friend are brighter than average. Mainly because everyone is older. My muscles help me in my daily details about getting respect. My friend eventually got glasses, and that helped him too. Today, he doesn't have to do that whole "No, I'm not a terrorist, I'm just not from around here-speech".