What makes a snob?

I like to eat off of plates. Not the paper kind but the kind made out of cold, hard glass or china. I like to eat at restaurants that have linen napkins but I also like to eat great, messy BBQ that requires a paper towel roll. I like to eat seafood that isn't fried -- especially stuffed shark and cold shrimp. I like my hotel rooms to have doors that open to the inside not the outside. Some of that is for security reasons and some of that is because the beds aren't lumpy and the bathrooms aren't moldy. I love to travel. I love to read. I love plays and I love Shakespeare. My English teacher mother was fanatical about expanding her kids' vocabulary, so I use words with more than 2 syllables from time to time.

All of these things make me a snob. That's what I was told. Snotty, snooty, uppity--and only because he doesn't know the word "pretentious."

Here's the kicker: I was raised to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. Everyone has a place in the world and no one's place is better than anyone else's. People have likes and dislikes and just because they aren't the same as mine doesn't make them worthless; it makes them interesting. Everyone you meet is going through something. Recognizing that life is hard and people just want to feel like someone gives a damn about them is part of the human experience.

So here's what I have to say. Get a new definition of "snob." My likes and dislikes make me who I am as a person. And I want to be proud of being me, not sorry for it. I want to share all the neat things I like and the cool things I've gotten to do. And I want to continue to learn from people who are different from me. Relationships are what keeps us from being lonely. They are what drives us to get up every day to be able to share that day with someone who cares about us.

I think it is sad that he judges me for what interests me and not for who I am. Because it says his worth in life is based on things we can't take with us when it's over. I hope his cold bed of Judge Judy, paper plates and fried shrimp keep him happy because he's robbing himself of the opportunity to experience life beyond his comfortable, little world where he sits on his throne and judges me.