We Need Not Take Everything So Seriously (Part 2)

(Drafted in a hotel lobby after taking a final exam....)


Well, isn’t that the truth? Isn’t it so much the truth that some people still tell me that to this day. Recently, someone called me “Analyzing Annie.” While true, it was like a slap in the face. It was akin to walking out of a hot room into an ice cold blizzard. 

Anyway, I heard what my then-babysitter said to me, but still I went to school the next day in pursuit of my new would-be-failed-friendship with this person. 

In an admission I’m embarrassed to make, I literally chased this girl around in circles until she told me she didn’t want to be friends with me. (Reminder, this was third grade and on a playground).

[A few years later, I did the same thing, at a restaurant with the first guy I ever had a crush on. I walked and followed him around, and around, and around, until he finally looked at me and said, “I know you have a crush on me.”] 

Stunned. Hurt. Shocked. Rejection. 

So, I have said that giving is better than receiving. It truly is. Except, sometimes you find yourself giving so much to the one or two or few people who don’t give anything in return. Not that they’re not worth your love, or your time, or your thought, but there are so many other people who need your love, your time, and your thought. 

Many times during the last fifteen or so years of my life, people would tell me, “You know what you need, a hobby.” 

Or, “Why don’t you volunteer somewhere?”

Or, “Why don’t you work at a flower shop?” (because I randomly loved to send people flowers).

Or, “Why don’t you start your own card line?” (because I randomly liked to make cards and send them to people). 

Or, “Why don’t you look into catering?” (because I would make dinner for my friends and co-workers just because I wanted to.).

Finally, it dawned on me, the only satisfaction I would get out of wanting to be someone’s friend was by just being their friend. They didn’t have to be my friend back, but as long as I treated them with the generosity, loyalty, and companionship I would want, maybe they’d have a better day. 

On that note, I recall a saying that I used to say during middle school when I had the most unique core group of friends. 

You use time for the things that need to get done.

You make time for the things you want to do.

You have time for the people that matter.

It was that simple.  (I mean, seriously, who ever really wants to be "penciled in." Even though, I admittedly did joke several times to people that I'd have "My people call your people.")

Yet, echoing still, as I write this, “You need not take everything so seriously.”