Reflections.

I'm currently in a situation where I feel as if I'm being left out of the loop at this place I call work. This has changed quite a bit this past week. Thing is, I feel like I lose formality and etiquette when I'm in a workplace with such laid back vibe.
I've been thinking about what I could do to be "respected" once again and I finally realized that I need to be more aggressive and more out there. Lemme explain with a conversation that occurred when I was a senior in High School. There was this guy who shall remain nameless due to respect, point is, he was quite "nerdy" and by nerdy I mean outdated glasses, acne, didn't care about appearance, had excellent grades, played video games and seemed clingy because he didn't have many friends.
I met this guy through my friend Shelby who I had a class with, and he happened to be in the same class. One day while being in the same team he asked me if I could take off my sunglasses and I asked why and he said that he doesn't like looking at his reflection and he literally covered his eyes, curious about this event I asked him if he was okay, and he said something about things being easier for me because I was confident and popular, and that kinda hit me because I never considered myself confident or popular, so I asked him why he thought that, and his response was because I talked to all the popular kids, and dressed nice, and was openly gay, which made it seem like I was even more confident about myself. So this is how it pretty much went down:
Eddie: "It's pretty funny that you say this, because in middle school I felt like such an outcast. I was grossed out by myself. And I only wanted to be home all day, then I realized one day that If I wanted things to change I'd have to change my attitude towards myself, and towards my image. So I got a new style and an new attitude and felt better about myself--and when you feel better about yourself, people will take that as being confident and secure--but I have a lot of insecurities, lots of them, and the ones that matter to me the most are not the ones regarding my physique. But I can't tell you what insecurities I have because you can use that against me--not literally, but it's just an example. See, you can't tell people you have all these insecurities because people feed off of that, and they take you for weak, so stop showing it, because that's when people will try to take advantage of you. All of us have insecurities and all of us are self-conscious about something. So now, be more out there, because how are people going to notice you if you are not even out there in the zone. How are people going to remember who you are if you don't do something that separates you? Don't just do what you are supposed to do and leave it at that. Go a little more far."

Then it was funny, because I was laying on my bed, looking at the painted branches on my wall and out of nowhere this conversation popped in my head, and it was like a message I need to tell myself: "be more out there, because how are people going to notice you if you are not even out there in the zone. How are people going to remember who you are if you don't do something that separates you? Don't just do what you are supposed to do and leave it at that. Go a little more far."