I was just curious, what do your nonuni friends/aquantinces think of your uniing? I myself am in highschool, and although people respect it and think its neat, I forever am that “weird unicycle boy.”
(begin rant) Its always annoyed me that even if I went to Unicon and swept every competetion, I still wouldn’t get the recognition of a football player who sits on the bench every game. I find it to be the same for my wrestling and my grades. I start varsity and am top of my class,and people respect it, but I’ll never get the recognition of even a benched basketball player. (end rant)
That’s the way the world works. Unfortunately, people don’t really care about things that they haven’t tried before. For example, cup stacking. I think it’s cool that people can stacks cup so fast, but I don’t see myself spending myself doing such a ‘silly’ thing. So far the first thing people do when they find out that I unicycle, is to say something to do with clowns and circuses.
So you have to really like unicycling to stick with it. Maybe you can think of it positively. If unicycling is as common as playing basketball, it would probably lose some of the mysteriousness about it.
Follow your own heart and do not chase recognition. That is an ego trap. Put a smile on your face and share that smile with others, they will understand. 
aah…yes! Words of wisdom from the pope! And I’ll add a p.s. of my own… Unicyclists that stick with it are inherently exhibitionist. Just tell your friends "it was either this or streaking. Which do you prefer I do?”
do what you love and be proud of it. you may not get the attention the football players get but the attention you get will be 100 times more meaningful.
I’m new and the reason I started is because I do things that are difficult and needed something to add to my act that will get attention while getting the cardio I’ve neglected. Im already getting attention locally. …I do have two clown bikes also. I had never heard of anyone street riding or mountain until I started research on unicycling.
I actually like the idea of unicycling off road. This is a real conversation starter. I hope this leads to more performances…plus I can uni on stage tearing cards.
I started with this attitude but am really spending so much time training and reading about this that I have put 27 years of strength training on the back burner.
Start by asking yourself this. Why do you care what a football or basketball player thinks?
The indisputable difference between unicycling and those activities is the potential for million-dollar salaries. But the star players in your high school are statistically very unlikely to be on a track for that either. So?
People don’t know what unicycling is. Help them understand, or don’t worry about it.
I respect cup stacking as a difficult physical skill, like so many other physical skills. It’s not very good cardio though. 
I’m a freshman in college now, but I was our school’s second best varsity cross country runner and a world champion unicyclist (10k New Zealand), but I still wasn’t as “cool” as the football and basketball players. It never bothered me because I knew that the people who thought I was cool for my accomplishments meant more to me than anyone else who thought I was the “weird unicycle boy”.
P.S. You meant <rant> </rant> right? 
I am 59 years old and just started Unicycling this summer. I now do some regular workouts of about 3 to 4 miles. While I am doing that I don’t see any 59 year old football players, and as far as that goes, I don’t even see any 59 year old football players that just sit on the bench either. My point is that you are in an activity that can last your entire life. Be proud that you have the sense to do something that is an activity that is worthwhile after you are “out of highschool”.
Flux
Thats the easiest way to get respect from people that dont ride.
Most people that find out I unicycle generally have positive things to say to me about it. I have of course heard the traditional clown/circus comment, even from my dad who says I should go to clown school, but I don’t really take that as an insult - it’s just something people say since that is what unicycling is associated with in the mainstream.
I’ve learned to expect people to think I’m weird due to my hobbies (unicycling, speedcubing, yo-yoing, etc.), even if they don’t say it straight to me. I just don’t really think about it anymore and rather just have fun doing the things I enjoy.
I find that it not only takes a real liking for unicyling, it also takes a certain amount of proudness in being able to do something not many can do to be able to keep on hapily riding when someone unfamiliar with unicycling gives a negative comment.
I personally love learning things not many people do, which is why; like NSMarkop, I also took up speedcubing, and unicycling!
thanks for the advice, but please don’t think I’m a sad little highschooler who thinks that no one understands me. I love my school, and respect any hobby/sport, but at the same time, I know that nothing is as cool as uni, whether they know it or not 