Before I go off on a soapbox moment, this is the first NoaC comic I made in color. I decided to go to color for various reasons, one of which being I am actually producing comics faster than I expected! Yay! I do plan on coloring the earlier comics, so if you are from the future and wonder what I’m talking about because they’re all in color, that’s why. (Also, I just realized that this comic’s initials are the same as the National Order of the Arrow Conference, which makes me happy.)
And now, SOAPBOX. Like I say in the comic, a lot of the misconception about where I am was just not being aware of what Egypt is actually like, but I did come across a few people who were pretty overtly racist about the region. I tried to use it as a chance to educate, which got through to some people, but some were pretty adamant in their ideas and seemed to think that they have more expertise in the area than people who had been there. That was frustrating, but what was even more frustrating was what Meagan had to (and still does) put up with. Again, a lot of it was genuine curiosity and concern, but some of it was outright RUDE. I frequently had people try to convince me that Meagan needed to quit her job to come with me even after I explained that she has her own career she is working on, and this shocked more people than I care to admit (it’s the 21st century, come on!). I dodged most of it though, as people were more interested in what I would be doing in Egypt. Meagan got an almost daily deluge of personal questions about our relationship, including the ones shown above. I expect some insensitive questions coming from my students, but hers were coming from grown adults. Again, yay for you for being concerned and light questions are fine (although the monotony of answering the questions got old real quick) and if you’re a close friend you can get more personal, but when is it EVER appropriate to ask some of those questions? And the ridiculously high number of people who asked “have we talked about it?” What, you think we’re just gonna ignore the fact that I’m moving 6000 miles away? The other thing that drove both of us crazy is how Meagan basically got treated as an extension of myself instead of her own person. Even now, when people greet Meagan, they’re always asking about how I’m doing (many of which have never met me) and don’t ask about other things in her awesome life. I do think most of these people really do mean well, but…yeesh.
tl;dr Think before you speak and mind your own business.
