Tag Archives: Relationships

The Life and Times

being the one they call

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a leader doesn’t always stand in the front of the pack… but they do stand behind their friends.

As the friend who is most likely to do something wild or impulsive, few would think I am also the most reliable. And sometimes they might even be right.

I have never been a team captain, never been a front runner, and if I ran for any political office I would undoubtably lose – yet I am the first person most think to call when they are in trouble. Why? Because I answer, and more importantly, I show up.

As a sister, a daughter, and a friend my highest priority is “my people”. My chosen family includes teammates, old residents, coworkers, family and sometimes, that random person on the street who visibly looks like they are struggling.

showing up is easy, being present is hard

Growing up I constantly notice a deficit when it comes to showing up. People my age are criticized for their work ethic, their relationship status’, and their sociopolitical movements. But more than ever, my generation and the one to follow is showing up in big ways. Kids are leading movements, running for office, and acting in small ways with big results [simple acts of kindness]

It took some pretty rough -unplanned- life moments, like loss to make me realize that people don’t care enough about showing up in the long term vs. the short term – In this there proves to be a trend where people will ask how someone is doing, without actually wanting the answer. But with what I have seen lately, I am happy to see the revitalization of the long game.

Being the one they call isn’t always easy. In fact, on some occasions, it breaks your heart – but being the one they call is never about you. It’s about showing up – and I couldn’t be more proud to say that more and more young people are starting to answer the call than ever before.

The Life and Times

On Public Apologies

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When you realize you’ve been a total A**

I’ve always found it hard to put a value on my work. For me, working was never about ‘making it big’, and truth be told if I could make it so I only ever had enough to support myself and my friends, I wouldn’t care what that take home number was. Honestly, I grew up wanting to be a writer – so eventually I talked myself into thinking a two story card board fort on the side of a really nice road would be perfect as long as I was inspiring one or two people with my work.

Looking at my life now, a couple things didn’t turn out how I thought they would. My love life is a mess, my floors are carpeted rather than paved, I haven’t finished or published a book and my most popular blog to date at work is on goat yoga. I have no clue how I got here and now that I have I am so afraid to lose it that I’m just waiting for the shoe to drop and doing what I can to self sabotage along the way.

so how did this all start?

Well lately I got a job. One where I am so out of my depth and so to compensate [over compensate] for feeling insecure, I tend to act proud – too proud because on the outside it makes it seem like I have a clue… I don’t.

Truth is, I thought by the time I got a full time job I would be able to settle down, start believing I had some semblance of a life and finally feel like I had it together – I don’t. Truth is, I am just as lost as I was three months ago and the only difference now is that I have to hide this huge sense of guilt that I have been given an opportunity I don’t deserve. Maybe other people share this feeling. Like the successes that find us aren’t always the ones we’ve earned and no matter what we do we’re just chasing this idea that we can make someone proud.

I don’t know about you – but I hate feeling like an A** just as much as my friends hate when I am one. So the truth is – I’m sorry. I’m sorry I got/continue to get caught up in the idea that this step forward is bigger than it is. At the end of the day – I am still learning how to do this adult thing, and I know my friends are too, I just hope I don’t forget to show how grateful I am to them [to friends new and old] because life is scary, I am petrified and I couldn’t be where I am today without the amazing people that got me here today.

Truth is

I can’t promise I wont continue to mess up, I can’t promise I’ll make a difference yet but I want to. I look around and I see so many people that inspire me. Roommates, friends, strangers, all doing things that leave them exhausted and fulfilled and – and while most days I like to think that the little things I am doing now will make a difference when I finally feel my feet beneath me again – I can’t say that I am defining what our future will be and look like – but they can.

So to the friends I brag to, and the strangers who might understand what this feels like – I’m sorry.

and thanks to you I now know how to do better – and to be better – and it is all because of you that I know I have been changed for the better too.

Thank you.

-R

Relationships

A Date is NOT a D*** Appointment

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Maybe this next one won’t apply to you, but right now it is time to get real about a topic that a lot of us have on our minds… hookups. Enter the term ‘Dick Appointment.’ Now as a tasteful young lady don’t think ill of me for using this term; while obscure this slang actually and boldly details what some girls to be a scheduled hookup. It isn’t my favorite term… but it gets the point across.

If you go on a date you hope they call you back, but if you schedule a d*** appointment it is more like a visit to the doctors office, they only call once in a while when they need to check and make sure everything still works alright – and that is ok because the expectations on both ends are very different.

The Down and Dirty

Now guys, for a lot of us, we don’t want to be your 3 am booty call. Some do, but many do not. And for girls who are looking for something real – know that this kind of appointment won’t necessarily give you the all clear. See there is a difference between no strings attached and someone pulling on your heart strings so what troubles me most in dating culture today is the general wants and needs of the public. In general we WANT fun, to get to know someone, to be spontaneous, but what we NEED is a sense of honesty rather than entitlement. In other words having NEEDS and what we NEED are very different things.

On my Philosophies

Look I never expected to be any type of relationship writer. Heck most of my life my romantic experience was from television. Shows like “Sex in the City” taught me how to feel and be sexy without letting life [or men] get to me, and shows like “The Vampire Diaries” taught me the meaning of love in an oddly raw teen romance kind of sense.pexels-photo-1247933

Truth is, I don’t like making appointments with people I am interested in. I think that guys should call rather than snapchat if they are truly interested, and that if anyone likes a person because this happens in all relationships, effort should be put in on both sides to communicate what each party wants.

If that makes me old fashioned then fine, but there is more to life and love than the hints I have picked up and put down over the past couple months. At the end of the day, if you want sex to be a transaction, that is your choice. But a date… its not a d*** appointment because no one should be treated like that.

It’s not the other person’s fault

I have noticed lately that people play games. We do it to keep ourselves safe, to keep the playing field even, but from a female perspective I have to play devils advocate and call out the women who are playing with their own set of rules.

Recently, someone close to me was used. As a trusting person this guy fell for a girl and she broke his heart. For nice guys finding someone their age is hard. The young ones compete against the ones who talk smooth but treat people wrong and the old ones just do what they can to prove they care.

The end or the beginning

At the end of the day nothing seems to be fair in love and war, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop fighting. What steps can you do to change the stigma and end this war.

Good luck, God Speed, and Happy Friday Folks.