Fuzz

I haven't been posting much recently. I've gotten a few requests to post on some more interesting, controversial, thought-provoking topics. This, I'm afraid, is not that.

I worked at the Burger King in the university student union during my junior year in high school. During that year is when I first started growing facial hair. It came in pretty evenly, but rather blonde and fuzzy compared to what my hair looks like today. One evening, a week or two after it had started coming in, the manager on duty was my favorite one—the one I could have conversations with about technology and games and things relevant to my interests (he helped me decide on my first domain name, in fact). He walked by me, and said roughly the following to me:

Manager: Travis, tonight when you go home, I want you to shave your beard fuzz.
Me: What?
Manager: You just should.
Me: Why's that?
Manager: We're all excited for you. You have your first facial hair. You've proven that you can grow facial hair. Hooray! But it looks terrible, and if you shave it off it will grow back faster and look better. Don't worry, you'll get more. Get your dad to show you how.

I was really embarrassed for a moment, not because he was intending to embarrass or annoy me, or because he told me this around the other employees, but because he was completely right and I hadn't even realized it for myself yet. I was avoiding shaving simply because I wanted people to notice that I was all manly and stuff.

(Historical note: I didn't make facial hair a standard part of my appearance until a couple years ago or less.)