Is this how we say goodbye?
Should've known better when you came around
That you were gonna make me cry
It's breaking my heart to watch you run around
'Cause I know that you're living a lie
That's okay baby 'cause in time you will find...
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
What goes around, goes around, goes around
Comes all the way back around
I'm not a crunchy granola kind of person. However, I do believe in karma.
One of my favorite movies is PAY IT FORWARD. I love the idea that one small act of kindness can start a ripple effect that has the potential to change the whole world. Wouldn't it be so much nicer if everyone else was so much nicer?
I consider myself a fairly nice person. I like doing nice things for people. I don't understand why there aren't more nice people in the world.
It's not hard to be nice. In fact, it seems to take less energy to be nice than it does to be grumpy and selfish.
Hold a door. Let someone go first. Share a cookie. Share a smile. Say good morning. Pay someone's parking meter. Offer to help someone with something. Give up the "close" parking space to someone else. Let someone with one item cut the line at the grocery store. Carry a spider outside and let it go instead of killing it.
I believe that what goes around comes around. Whenever I'm tempted to not take the higher road, I stop and think about times in the past when I didn't and sure enough, my act of selfishness or childishness came back to bite me on the butt. Life is just too short to be looking over my shoulder wondering if some not-so-nice thing I did or said is going to come back to haunt me. I hope that I'm collecting brownie points with the Powers That Be each time I choose to be the bigger person. I hope. I also hope that every time someone does something not so nice that they are losing brownie points. I'd hate to think that it's all for nothing.
Now, I'm no pollyanna. I am human. I am sarcastic. I have a low tolerance for stupidity. And I struggle every day with reigning in the desire to grab some people by the neck and squeezing very hard.
However, I always tell myself, "If you act like an a$$, you're gonna pay for it later."
If you read my Facebook wall, you probably know that there are these young men in my apartment complex who have moo'd at me on two separate occasions this summer. One time was back in June when I was walking back to my apartment after a couple of hours at the complex pool. I ignored them, but then felt like crap the rest of the day because it saddened me that after all of the years I suffered being made fun of as a kid and adolescent, there are still people in this world who think it's funny to make fun of someone because of her size. But, I kept reminding myself that I was the better person and that they were just childish and immature and that some day, they would get whatever is coming to them.
Then, last week, I was walking up the sidewalk to my apartment and a car drove by and I heard the mooing again. I looked back and sure enough it was the two boys who did it in June. It really hurt. I know it's not supposed to. I know I'm way more than what they see me as. However, it made me really start to question why I even try to be the better person. I wanted to hunt them down and make them pay. But, I had a good cry and shook it off.
A few nights ago, I went to Subway for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking. Behind the counter was one of the guys. My heart dropped to my feet as soon as we made eye contact. For one, I was embarrassed to be buying food. All I kept thinking was that if they moo at me already, then knowing that I like to have fast food was only going to fuel their fire. I felt like I should justify to him why I was there instead of home eating carrots and trying to starve myself into some size that won't get me moo'd at.
Instead, I held his eye contact and then said, "Do you recognize me?" His eyes got big and he nodded. His ears turned pink. "It's not me. It's my a$$hole friend," he said quickly. I just said, "It's not nice." He said, "It isn't me. I swear." I really wanted to be a b*tch. I really wanted to hold a grudge. Instead, I said, "So, do you live in my complex or are you visiting someone there?" He said he lived there. I then introduced myself and asked him his name. He told me. I then asked if he was military or in school. He's in school. I then asked him if he was from here. He wasn't. He's from Pittsburgh. While the young man made my sandwich, I made small talk with him about the weather, the earthquake and didn't bring up the mooing at all. After he rung me up and I paid (and he didn't charge me for my drink), he apologized for his friend and I just shrugged and said, "Hope to see you around! Nice to meet you!" and left.
I hope that he will think twice about making fun of anyone and if he really wasn't participating, I hope he will try to encourage others to be less mean and more open-minded about people.
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