Have you ever been in a crowded place, maybe a downtown area, and everyone is going their own way and minding their own business and all of a sudden you hear this faint yelling? All of a sudden you find yourself being yelled at by a crazy person that isn’t making any sense. Maybe they’re not even yelling at YOU personally but you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. I’ll give you an example. I was in New York with some girlfriends and we walked out of a restaurant waiting for our Uber and a man from across the street started yelling at us. He called me a racist. He called all sorts of names. He made fun of my hair color, my skin color and the list goes on. You know what I did? Walked. Away. BYE FELICIA! YOU DON’T KNOW ME! In those cases most people, myself included, are kind of just thinking “Okaaaay I’m going to go over here this way YOU NUT.” You laugh and move on…right?
What if you took what that person said to you to heart. Ridiculous, right? This person doesn’t KNOW you. They have seen you for a small amount of time and only in one place, in one context. What if I went home and cried that night and cried because someone called me a racist and I know for a fact that’s not me. How stupid would that be? There’s no logic to it! Now if my husband said those things about me, someone who knows me…I should take It to heart.
Insert: internet trolls. They are the crazy person yelling nonsense on Bleecker Street in New York. THAT’S WHO TROLLS ARE. So today, I got the meanest message from someone and It was straight up hurtful…but the second I compared them to the crazy guy in New York…I laughed. It was a freeing epiphany. I didn’t allow them to get to me. They don’t even know me! My mom used to tell me that hurt people, hurt people. And that’s just It. I used to be lying when I would get a mean message and would respond with “I feel bad for them” because I didn’t…I felt bad for me. But now, I FOR REAL only feel bad for them. You never take the things the crazy guy on the street yells at you, so don’t take the things the crazy person behind the keyboard yells at you. It’s not worth your time.
A reminder so simple yet so needed is this: be kind. Whether someone deserves It or not is irrelevant and not up to you to decide truthfully. Any ounce of bitterness or anger you hold against someone doesn’t hurt them, It hurts you. If you feel that anger or bitterness when a story or post of theirs shows up in your feed. UN-FOL-LOW! I Marie Kondo my Instagram feed on the reg. And if I unfollow someone, it’s not their fault it’s more than likely mine! Maybe I’ll come back to them when I’m in a different place. But if you’re not careful, before you know It, you’re a crazy guy yelling at strangers on Bleecker Street with the Instagram handle of @hsjffsld and let’s be honest…no one likes that guy.
I don’t know if this was for anyone or more so just for me. But that’s what this little corner of the internet is for so thanks for listening if you made It this far, love you long time.