On not being the "whoop and cheer" type!

There's a gym class I go to every week that reminds me of being back at school, which were definitely not the "best days of my life" (who the hell ever said that, and where are they now?  Probably chewing at the insides of their mouth whilst secured to a table leg by a rusty chain outside a dodgy pub somewhere, I should imagine).

And so this gym class reminds me of being back at school, which is in itself quite terrifying considering how long ago that was, but the really awful thing about it is that it shows me how little I've changed in over twenty years.  

This class is held at lunchtimes, and its regular participants are made up of a large group of people who all work together in the office next-door to the gym...and then there's me.  So there's a real 'school clique' sort of feel to it, from which I am automatically (but not unkindly) excluded by the simple fact that I don't work with them all.  And also because I make absolutely no effort at all to talk to any of them.

I realise I'm presenting this as though it worries me, but it doesn't...what actually worries me is that I don't care and I keep thinking that I should care about how anti-social I can be.  For instance, one of the group recently got engaged.  She ran into the class whooping and flashing her engagement ring around the room, to a deafening cacophony of even more whoops and cheers from the rest of the group.  

Now...you might have guessed that I am not a "whoop and cheer" type of person...well, not unless it's a REALLY special occasion, anyway!  But in this particular class, it's better if you are.  This is basically what I'm referring to about school days; everybody else seemed united in their constant enjoyment and general rebellion, whereas I just drifted obliviously and generally unnoticed, alongside it all.   I did all the homework because I enjoyed all the learning, I spent lunchtimes reading in the school canteen (or going to the newsagents to buy my daily lunchtime staple of three bags of crisps and three chocolate bars...Jamie Oliver would have a heart attack!), and when I was there I didn't much care about anything else.  

And so it goes...in the class I do the workout because it's incredibly tough and I enjoy it, but I'm not interested in all the "whoop and cheer stuff" that goes on before, during and after each session.  But I keep thinking I should be...if only all that didn't take so much mental energy alongside the physical.  And to be honest it'd help if they didn't all come in discussing what's just happened in 'The Only Way is Essex' and how much it costs to wax your armpits (if you're interested, men pay more for waxing certain areas, according to the man who said that, anyway!).  Fun to listen to, but I haven't got anything to add, on the whole, so for now I think I'll just keep on exercising obliviously away.

(God, aren't I boring!)