Mid-life crisis come early perhaps. Either that, or adolescent angst extended.

I once told Laura (the one in Washington now) that people who seem to be in perpetual anger makes me very nervous. Which is a strange thing onto itself, as am a counsellor and has certainly dealt with angry people from time to time. I guess it goes to show that I subconsciously compartmentalised my emotional reaction towards people I know, and people I know on a 'professional' level. In a detached manner when objectivity reigns, I am perfectly capable of handling angry people in manner of Margaret Thatcher dealing with workers' strikes; but when it comes to people I come into contact with on a personal level or daily basis, I am actually quite incapable of finding a right way to respond to them.

That said, I should also mention that I am a very intuitive person. I may not always know acquaintances well enough, but my level of sensitivity towards emotional vibes often allows me to sift out the happy people from the depressed people and the very angry people. Even when these people do not look problematic outwardly, somehow, I can feel it, and this makes me feel uneasy. Really. Now that explains why I only hang out with certain people, and choose to avoid others.

My first encounter with angry people started the day I went to JC. There was this girl I knew who never failed to be angry about something. One day it might be someone in class who did something she didn't like, and another day it might be the teachers, or the state of her hair. And come to think of it, it's not only this one girl. There was another. And you know what? They are from the same girls' school. Hmm. You people want to give a guess as to which school that is?

Anyway, when I speak of angry people, I don't mean that people shouldn't be allowed to be angry. Of course when someone/something pisses you off, you are more than entitled to get angry. The problem with these people I speak of is, they seem to live in anger. They are people who have perpetual PMS -- pre-menstrual syndrome for the girls, and pre-manhood syndrome for the boys. They purposefully seek anger in life and find ways and means to be angry at someone and something, and you wonder why I always feel that I'm nearing a nervous breakdown when I'm around these people.

Encounters with angry people increased when I entered university. I have reason to believe that FASS breeds angry people. Very many internally-angry people trying to be normal and outwardly not-angry.

You must be wondering how I can be sure that I wasn't wrong about these angry people. Well, that's because I read some of their blogs, and they confirm my suspicions. In fact, sometimes their entries get so angry and aggressive I twitch. I wished I haven't read their blogs 'cos now I have problems reconciling their different personas. I mean, how am I supposed to react to an outwardly okay person when the night before I just read an entry they wrote that was full of CAPS-angst and rumbling vulgarities and verbal bloodshed?

I don't see how there can be so many things to get angry with. I really don't see how.