Stop Pretending Already!

Everyone has at least one person in their life that just won't seem to go away. You know, that asshole relative that insists on making everyone's lives miserable and who just refuses to die. Or that idiot ex that still lives in the same neighborhood as you and has become a constant reminder of something you'd just soon forget. Everyone has them. That neighbor who parks in your spot every chance they get or lets their dog piss on your rose bushes in the middle of the night. There are just some people who seem to stick around like bad pennies and pop up at the most inopportune moments in your life.

My question is, "Why do you try to pretend they don't exist?" Oh yes, I understand that we'd all like to let bygones be bygones and we all have these strange delusions of being "better people".

But honestly, there are just some things in life that are not going to go away. As much as we'd like to move on and get past things, there will always be at least one person who insists on making your day shitty.

So stop pretending that everything is all sunshine and light and start tuning into your dark side.

I must admit that I'm generally a pretty chipper person who is easy going and doesn't hold too much of a grudge. I tend to be pretty forgiving, though far from naive, and I try to make the best of the worse situations. I'm positive enough to be able to look back on my life and honestly say, "I have no regrets!" Given the opportunity to do it all again, I wouldn't change a damn thing, because frankly, that would change who I am today. Even in my most idiotic of moments, I have walked away from my mistakes a better person for having made them.

That being said, I am certainly not all flowers and daisies!

I do not pretend for a moment that the things that irritate me ARE NOT THERE. Every day, on my way to work, I must drive past my ex-husband's workplace and see HIS truck parked in the front lot. As much as I'd like to forget that someone like him is roaming around WASTING PERFECTLY GOOD OXYGEN, I can't for the life of me do it. Each morning, I find myself glancing in the direction of the parking lot and finding that red truck. On a good day, I take little more than a passing glance. On a bad day, I mumble obscenities under my breath and imagine flipping him the bird if he were there to see it. Then there are those days where I imagine that he was walking across the road to get something at the gas station and my brakes mysteriously fail.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I dwell in the past. I'm very happy with my current life and 90% of the time I don't even give a passing thought to the negative aspects of my life. It's just the fact that some things just don't disappear. And I figure, if they aren't going to go away then THERE IS NO SENSE IN PRETENDING THEY AREN'T THERE.

I think that is just unhealthy all around.

If you convince yourself that these things are no longer in your life and that there is no possible way you could be reminded of them ever again, then you are setting yourself up for total failure when all of the sudden you pass them on the street.

On the other hand, if you've practiced flipping them off every morning, then it will be no big surprise when you meet them at the gas station 6 months from now. It'll just be second nature to flip them off and proceed with your day unscathed.

So my advice to you is to STOP sweeping your nosey neighbor under the rug. STOP hiding your ex lover in the closet with the rest of the skeletons. STOP trying to be the image of perfection that you will never be able to fully attain!

Instead, get out your HIP WADERS; march through the daily BULL SHIT of life, HOLD YOUR HEAD UP HIGH and PROUDLY PROCLAIM that you are well aware that your best friend's neighbor is the same PIECE OF CRAP that you mistakenly fell in love with 10 years ago.

DON'T HOLD BACK!

DON'T live in a delusion and allow the assholes of the world to somehow alter your views on reality!

TAKE OFF your damned rose-colored glasses and come to terms with the fact that while you are generally a good person who tries to do right, you wouldn't mind seeing some people plastered on a missing persons report!

You can't undo your past and it isn't going to go away,

SO DAMN IT...

AT LEAST BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!!!