An Unofficial Guide To Living a Happy, Worry Free + Fulfilling Life

April 25: Playing A Fool

Honest question for all of you - how many people in your life can you count that are the kind that walk all over everyone?

The kind that only calls you if they will benefit, the kind that won't even reach out to you on your birthday, the kind that butters you up big time when they eventually see you (just to keep you a little bit in love with them)? The kind you'd expect to snitch behind closed doors.

I'm sure we've all pinpointed at least one.

When you think of this person, you begin to notice patterns in the way you act around and toward them.

Maybe you pretend that you are okay with seeing them infrequently. Maybe you make excuses for them so it's easier for them to ditch you. Maybe you laugh at everything they say just to keep the peace.

You learn their actions and their train of thought to a tee, able to predict their next move.

And in turn, you begin acting in the same, predictable ways.

You begin to give as good as you get. Not caring about their word as much. Not waiting to be contacted on the off chance they just might think of you.
Not feeling so much love for them.

You become numb to the true you, as you too play their game. You lose part of who you are in the act of figuring out who the fuck they are trying to be.

Tonight I learnt, I'm just as bad as them. As every kid who treat me a little less than their best and thought they could take advantage of me.

I decided not to text back. I forgot it was your birthday while you still managed to text me by ten PM on my own. I felt like the bad dude, the shit friend.

I felt as though I underestimated you. Maybe the change of scenery and career has impacted you more than I know. It seems to have softened you, made you gracious, become a real lover.

Lesson being: don't let your head or your heart sway you into being just as bad as the user; the abuser. Because one day you might realise they've changed and you're stuck retaliating the same way they did to you. And you're left feeling ashamed that they now see you how you saw them - and that isn't you.

Life is too short.