The other spills

Despite thousands of people choosing 'nightfall' as the neologism of 2025, I'll stick with another word that has fascinated me and given me a strong sense of identification: 'othervert,' a concept popularized by psychiatrist Rami Kaminski. Other verts are neither introverts nor extroverts nor ambiverts—they're somewhere in between the first two. They are people who value deep individual relationships and feel alienated from groups and collective identities. They can be unsettling, but they have no problem alternating between socializing and enjoying solitude. Furthermore, acceptance by others doesn't prevent them from often feeling out of place.

Bingo! What a lovely label I've found for myself! Anyone who thinks we're weird is wrong. We're other, right? That's something modern and sophisticated, and something the masses, so alienated from my worldview, just don't quite understand. I don't care, because, like any other truth, I'm not worried about what others think—in fact, I couldn't care less about 83.5% of the thoughts of the people around me.

Kaminski doesn't explain it, but times like these, with group celebrations and maximum socialization, cause trauma to those of us who are exposed, and then we spend months hiding from family and friends, suffering from post-traumatic stress. And that's even after minimizing group interactions to the point of pushing ourselves to the limit and seeming somewhat rude. I kept a photo I took when my leg was put in a cast for months and used it as an excuse not to meet up. But there came a point when I started to doubt the possibility of sending it twice to the same person, and, with great regret, I gave up this practice. It's important to be aware that, in some circumstances, lying isn't a moral failing but a sign of good manners and a survival tool. Only short-sighted moralists underestimate one of the mechanisms that prevents social coexistence from collapsing.

The list of things that fill me with utter indifference is endless. But lunches and other people's opinions on an almost schizophrenic array of issues are, without a doubt, among the first things that make me yawn profusely. Anyway, we'll enjoy it until we can't stand it anymore.