"It didn't
take me long to figure out that that was a good thing.
It took me longer to come to the conclusion that this
was a moral issue."
Hacking at the AI Lab wasn't the only activity helping
to boost Stallman's esteem. During the middle of his
sophomore year at Harvard, Stallman had joined up with
a dance troupe that specialized in folk dances . What
began as a simple attempt to meet women and expand his
social horizons soon expanded into yet another passion
alongside hacking. Dancing in front of audiences
dressed in the native garb of a Balkan peasant,
Stallman no longer felt like the awkward, uncoordinated
10-year-old whose attempts to play football had ended
in frustration. He felt confident, agile, and alive.
For a brief moment, he even felt a hint of emotional
connection. He soon found being in front of an audience
fun, and it wasn't long thereafter that he began
craving the performance side of dancing almost as much
as the social side.
Although the dancing and hacking did little to improve
Stallman's social standing, they helped him overcome
the feelings of weirdness that had clouded his
pre-Harvard life.
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