Time for a little rant. We all know some people display toxic or harmful behavior. That’s nothing new. Then there are those who not only portray this behavior, but actively glorify it. Not just people, mind you. We see it everywhere. How you’re supposed to ‘sacrifice’ your private life and happiness for a career. How you’re supposed to go through being treated like dirt by the person you’re with because you want to be a ride or die. And you know what? I’m seven shades of done with it all.
Money
It’s 2018. We’ve all just had to deal with the recovering economy and years and years of endless unpaid internships and no pay increases. Everybody works hard. You’re not the only one. Millennials are the lost generation in that sense. The economic sense. If you want something better, go out and find it. Learn from other people’s mistakes so you don’t have to make them all yourself. Stop complaining incessantly to your friends who are going through the same mess. You are not the hardest-working, most underpaid, unluckiest person in the world. You just can’t prioritize. Trouble saving money? College debt? Car payments? Make choices. They may not be easy, but sometimes you have to stop whining and being a helpless victim and pull yourself together.
Love
Heartbreak sucks. It does. But almost everyone will go through it at some point. You’re not the first person to have your heart broken. You won’t be the last. People have survived heartbreak. It will not kill you. It’s OK to be sad, but don’t let it linger and control your life. And definitely don’t use it as an excuse for other harmful behavior. Not towards anybody. Not your friends, not your family, not your future partner, not even your ex. You’re not a tortured soul, you just can’t let go like a child that can’t let go of its blankey. Be sad, then close that chapter of your life and keep it moving.
Career
Putting in 16 hours of work every day doesn’t mean you’re heroic, a go-getter, and oh-so dedicated to your job. No. Nobody’s going to respect you more for it. Your boss will assume you have no life and will take your efforts for granted. Your supervisor will think you’re extremely inefficient if it takes you this long to do the same job your colleagues do in their normal workweek. Your colleagues probably won’t like you because they think you’re either sucking up, making them look bad, or slowing them down. On top of that, having no time to work on or cultivate your own relationships, hobbies or, you know, keep your health up, doesn’t make you some kind of martyr. It makes you stupid and means you have a fucked up sense of priorities.So what’s the common denominator here? People who refuse to look at themselves as anything but a victim, and who also feel like this is “the way it should be”. Because if you’re not suffering for it, it’s not worth pursuing. I call bullshit on that. And if you wanna live your life that way anyway, keep it to ya damn self.
