He/she is the kind of person who tries to stand out more when we are adolescents, when we are fighting to affirm our identities, our dreams, our place in the world. We are filled with doubts about what to do, and all of a sudden here comes the creep: always the leader, the one who thinks he is the best-looking, the most intelligent, the most able to face the challenges that lie ahead.
In the case of boys, normally he imposes himself by brute force or by his “smart” attitudes, as if he knew more than everybody else.
In the case of girls, the creep is always the one who seems to attract the looks of all the guys, get invited to all the parties, always be the most elegant.
During this important rite of passage called adolescence,while we suffer from feeling neglected, insecure and fragile, the creep sails smoothly by.
One fine day, when we are already adults, we think about getting together with our friends from adolescence. We organize a party, usually in a restaurant – where everyone shows up with their husbands and wives.
The creep shows up – generally married like the rest of us. We are all interested in what has become of his/her life.
The first surprise is that the creep went nowhere. Or rather, he may have taken a couple of successful steps, but soon life proved implacable towards his arrogance – the adult world is quite different from the one we live in when we are young.
When dinner starts, it seems that we have all been transported back, but soon we realize that he was just an instrument to enable us to grow. After a couple of drinks, we see the creep at bay, trying to prove a strength that no longer exists, feeling that we still believe that he is the leader of us all.
We smile, exchange kind words with everyone, pay the bill and leave with the impression that the creep has made the wrong choice. We think: “everything in that person should have worked out right, and it didn’t”.
All of us have known a creep or two in our lives. And that’s just as well.
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Such creeps exists everywhere and once in our life, we all wanted to be one of them or be with them. It strange how life changes each and every definition with time. What it was in adolescent no longer is applicable in adulthood and it further changes in the old age…..That’s what we call the life is all about….
Could it be that the creep is a warrior of light?? And they come into this world as if …. we shouldn´t have any worries… but then all the problems of others are accumulated on to these kind of people. Which , in the end causes them so much problems.. Because of the weight of the projections?
I knew a creep once – wait, if I’m truthful, I should admit to dating someone with creep-like tendencies for a very long time. He was so keen on painting me with the darkest brush he could find, almost begrudging me any triumphant moment if it meant I outshone him in any way. If I disagreed with him and had the audacity to voice it, then I was “too disagreeable and confrontational”. He loved being the center of the Universe, and if I dared voice any fear I had or shared any weakness with him, he’d accuse me of whining or being too negative; yet, he never held his own rants, whining or characterizations to the same sort of scrutiny. It’s funny because even though I fell deeply in love with such a person, at some point in the relationship, I realized just how terribly insecure he was and noticed how hard he had to work at convincing others that he held some superior intelligence in relation to their own. Soon after that realization, the sympathy turned into resentment, and later into the sad knowledge that a man like him needed to be with someone who would continue to stroke his ego (which I was no longer willing to do) because he didn’t seem to have a firm grip on his own truth or reality.
happy bday my unseen teacher..
Many many happy returns of d day,I relate so much to every word u say,it’s as if u write for my soul.may u live for a billion yrs n keep touching our lives.
HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday HappyBirthday
A little song for you. Appropriate your age, I hope. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8n7mHJBhmw
May all your good wishes come true. I wish you a wonderful Birthday from all my heart.
I’ve allowed the impudence to make you a little drawing. I will send it to you via snail mail.
I wish you a wonderful year
ESte tiempo ha habido gente que ha aprovechado mi caida para subirse encima, para ocupar mi reino; quizá por envidia, quizá por complejo, para mantener su posición dentro del grupo tienen que rebajarme a mi, como no pueden subir intentan difamar al resto, sin embargo cambio, cada vez soy más yo, el que era antes de todo esto, supongo que algún día encontraré un trabajo a pesar del momento que se vive en mi pais, lo que me ha cerrado las puertas ha sido mi dificultad para relaccionarme, la incapacidad para salir al exterior para buscarme la vida, lo que me hacía depender de mi entorno para cambiar mi situación, y la desacreditación a la que he sido sometido por quienes me envidiaban. Poco a poco, pero los cambios van llegando, la verdad es que me voy defendiendo en lo economico y que empiezo a salir del huevo, además al no depender tanto de la gente estoy lejos de la maldad de algún acomplejado. Poco a poco, paso a paso. Bye…
I think one encounters the creep even in other stages of life. I agree that they tend to underachieve. Maybe because they are living a false life…
I liked this part the most ‘..but soon we realize that he was an instrument to enable us to grow’. The oppurtunity to look back and be thankful to whatever has passed is so blissful and it enables you to connect the dots, to realize the power of God and his role in our lives and the world as a whole. Thanks Paulo to trigger me to look back.
Casi todas quieren ser mi mejor amiga y todos quieren c*&e?me. El problema es que yo no quiero y lo que quiero decir es que NO QUIERO. Actualmente una de mis cuñadas pone DEMASIADO esfuerzo en ser mi mejor amiga y me es muy difícil estar en esta situación porque no me gusta herir a nadie pero es ese tipo de personas que nunca superó el “hambre y sueño” de su infancia. Me siento culpable porque no aparenta tener malas intenciones hasta que la dejo hablar demasiado y entonces me recuerda que la única persona con quien habla es con ella misma. Es como las moscas que uno las ahuyenta y regresan. No la puedo ayudar si a ella no le interesa. Tendré que ser tajante y no volver a ceder. ¿Cuál es mi problema?
Well, I remember a creep. The one who gave me my first kiss and the next day pretended I was not worthy of being said hello despite we were classmates and I used to spend a lot of time helping him with math. He was cruel indeed, and throughout the years I hated and adored his memory ( not that I remembered him so much because I was living in a foreign country and didn’t have much time) Seven years later I met him on the street the following day after coming back home and a great desire for returning tit for tat took hold of me. He was so arrogant he was going to pay for every single tear I had shed for him. By that time I already had the guts and enough hate to get even. I planned my revenge and if not have been by his marrying the following day I came back from a trip to Ecuador I would have wasted a lot of energy in hate. Thank God that didn’t happen. Hating is tiresome. Forgiveness is liberating. As Paulo says he was an instrument to make me realize what I did not want from men.
The world we live in encourages showy life and most people more often than not choose to pretend than to be themselves. Such tendencies get cultivated more broadly coz these are seen as source of livelyhoods, even for those nerds. Aren’t creeps the one whom nerds count on when it comes to business?
I do personally believe the key to success is hard work, what ever field you r persuing.
Spot on once again. I went to a private high school because I was so smart that I won a scholarship, otherwise my single mum would not have been able to pay for it. Thus I ended up surrounded with very rich kids, myself coming from relatively poor background. All those kids had flashy things, lots of money, were given apartments for their 16th bday etc. None of them bothered to study much or for that matter do much in general. I was often a laughing stock as I wore the same pair of jeans most of the high school and in general could not afford anything that the other kids could. Yet some 15 years later its me who has a high flying job, has travelled the world, has finished two top universities (paid for by myself) etc…and the kids who were so rich and so flashy are either working for their parents or have no jobs as have they have no motivation to work etc. Looking to back then when I was the quiet grey mouse its really interesting to see how things had turned out.
Well I always say how young are you? Yes Heimo you only as young as you feel.
For sure I won’t forget your Birthday Mr.Coelho, that falls right on my anniversary:)
What kind of cake do you like…I’ll bake a cake for your birthday ;O
Paulo, Please suggest what could be done to get out of this? What will you do and think to motivate yourself if you realize that you are in a same shoes?
Before I forget,
“Hap hap happy Birthday, Paulo!”
An oft-quoted poem comes to mind, first read when I was adolescent:-)
“Roses are red, tulips are blue
Friends like you are very few,
A happy birthday is my wish to you,
Your life be a poem, and all comes true!”
I was never a creep.
I was always in the “grey mice” group in the school days.
I didn’t know what to do even I was in the dance party ( I didn’t know why people dance!).
Then, I became a nerd.
But soon I stopped being a nerd, because seeing so many nerds in my country, this won’t do any good.
From my observation,
people who makes others laugh in their class will never be a comedian.
Usually, one who will turn to a great comedian is in a “grey mice”, who has not many friends.
And off course, this is not just about the comedian.
Marie-christine uses the word canaille for creep LoL.
it is an expression that I learned on the streets in germany.
s/he is a canaille. here it meant: smart like a fox, know how to get something out of a situation, feisty.
but it is not meant negative, more with humor.
Hi Mark,
thanks for using this topic to show the use of the heart sutra. beautiful <3
darn, now I am creepy again :o)
Come to Cyprus on the 24th to celebrate your birthday, dearest Paulo Coelho!
LOVE,
Thelma xxx
Exactly what he wanted to hear Annie. Never underestimate the healthy vanity of a author, or man, or nerd. And I mean that quite positive. Fishing for compliments. Nice! :-) But you’re only as old as you feel. He’s lying. He is not old. :-)
I wish you all a wonderful night
then don’t forget my birthday, 24 August
Great track! ….
I always think of creeps as creeping, sinister, something strange and eery … jerks are what I think you describe as a creep, people pleasers, backstabbers, gossip merchants, and if you have a child going to the school run is just like going back to school yourself!
old??????? nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
‘Paulo Coelho’ and ‘old’??? Sorry but they just don’t match! it CAN’T be such a thing! just CAN’T!
if anything is possible, this is not! :D
Love and Gratitude
Annie
I can relate to what you are trying to say Sir.Paulo. Reading the post just confirmed my own thought, thanks for sharing.
Òtimo texto, bom reler. Nesses tempos onde tudo é bullying, vc vê o pulha com um enfoque mto positivo e animador, os pulhas são instrumentos q fortalecem nosso caráter. Vc tem um q fala sobre o inimigo oculto q adoro tbém. Vou deixar um link de um texto q gosto mto, da Martha Medeiros, creio ser pertinente, sobre vampiros espirituais, espero q goste :) http://pensador.uol.com.br/vampiros/
Paulo, “Tente Outra Vez” é linda demais. Tenho escutado tanto esses dias. Obrigada!É um hino à vida, à fé, uma das musicas mais lindas do mundo. É uma injeção de coragem na veia!
Beijão Guerreiro amado
Deus te ilumine sempre
Goodness. I think perhaps the term popular kid has be replaced here with creep. Too much post-teen angst in this post for my liking. Mr Coelho, I hope you stop watching the Disney channel soon and get back to seeing the horizon. Respectfully yours. C.
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