The great Divide

This is probably going to be a short post. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, and I've got a heck of a lot of things to do before then....
​I had a long day of school today. I had a 70-question history test, a government quiz, and math that I actually needed help with. I didn't get to physics until after lunch, and by the time I'd finished and moved onto my homework, the doorbell rang. Multiple times.
​This had to be my sister home from school. No grown-up rings the doorbell like that! How the heck was it 3:45 already?
​Nope. It was a friend of mine, telling me that a bunch of dirty Kleenexes had blown out of our overstuffed trash can and had dotted the surrounding landscape. I have no idea why he was at our house in the first place.
​This particular friend of mine, let's call him Isaac, is a rather strange person. He's six foot three and skinnier than Hiccup from the first ​How to Train Your Dragon ​movie. He's a class clown and a lover of all things technology. His brother, we'll call him Tom, is a bookworm obsessed with The Flash ​and pretty much anything else Marvel. They, along with my dad, my grandfather, my pastors, and the guys I play with on the worship team, are the only males I associate with. And I don't even mean "on a regular basis." I mean, with the exception of my dentist, "ever."
And this poses a problem. See, a writer is supposed to have an androgynous mind, meaning they don't see things from a strictly male or female perspective. This is especially important when writing characters you don't share a gender with, and it's probably the reason why most of my protagonists thus far in my writing journey have been female. Not to say they've been strictly female. In fact, the short story I'm working on for you right now--"Target Twenty-Eight," a nice modern story set in my hometown of Chicago--features a male protagonist by the name of Max de Angelis. But I'm much more comfortable when I'm writing female characters.

I know the little things that girls do. I know the uncomfortable feeling of wearing a skirt that's just a little too short. I've felt the pain of brushing chlorine-soaked hair after a trip to the pool. I've compared my face and figure to those of other girls, and I've felt my mother's instinct trying to sprout while I hold babies in the church nursery. But do guys feel weird if their shorts are too short? What about when their hair is messy? Would they willingly volunteer for the church nursery, let alone enjoy doing it?
​What about their senses of humor? I know my friend Isaac has a strange sense of humor, complete with a perfect deadpan. He could tell you that FedEx and UPS were merging into FedUp with a face as straight as a nail. And his brother Tom? Slightly more morbid, occasionally too much so for my taste. But he's still funny.
​I know that all guys are different, the same way all girls are different, and I don't want to classify all of them based on Isaac and Tom. I know enough about guys to know that some of them are picky about their physical appearance and spend more time on their hair in the mornings than I do. The pastor who spoke in Youth last night admitted that he loved going clothes shopping. But I've also met guys who have a hard enough time going grocery shopping. I've met guys who are great with kids, but I've also heard a story about a guy who'd been a dad for eight months and couldn't even change a diaper.
When God created men and women, He made them differently. And the differences between men and women are so cool that, if you take the time to look at them, you start to appreciate how much care God took when He made us. We walk differently. We think differently. We communicate differently. According to the internet, we don't even take our shirts off the same way. And we're made this way for a reason. Maybe I'll never be able to write from a male perspective as easily as I can from a female perspective, and I'm okay with that, because that's how God made me.
​Maybe I'll start hanging out more with the guys at church. I'm finding out that they're not all the jerks that men are stereotyped as. In fact, some of them are pretty cool people. And maybe, as time passes, I'll be able to write a book from a guy's point of view.
What simple thing have you found men and women to do differently? And what are your tips for getting wisdom teeth removed? Please let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear readers, and don't forget to like us on Facebook!