Thursday, December 17, 2009

When stubbornness leads to ridiculousness

In the past, my predisposition to be stubborn hindered me in a few key ways. There was a point in time where I had the desperate inclination to do the exact opposite of what anyone counseled me to do. (Within the confines of my religious, perfectionist and over-analytical self, that is.) For instance, in college, if I received the "I'm not sure if ____ is the best guy to be dating" comment, I would dig my heels in and prove to everyone that ____, indeed, was worth dating. (Even though most of the time ____ wouldn't be.) I still have this feeling every so often, though I have learned to control this impulse [most of the time] and try to retain a sense of objectivity that I once was thoroughly devoid of.

I think it's a part of growing up... part of realizing that there are much more important things in life than trying to prove everybody wrong or thinking that a personal opinion is the only opinion of value. Honestly, I have miles to go... but perhaps vocalizing this little foible of mine will hold me a bit more accountable in the future.


With one of my most fav former roomies, circa 2005

6 comments:

kenna said...

i'm trying to learn this myself. a friend told me the following advice when i was worried about certain people having certain opinions about me...

'kenna, what if you just didn't care. no, really. what if you just did not care?'

nothing would happen. the world wouldn't end, these people wouldn't die, and i would probably be waaay better off. :)

that probably didn't make sense, but hey, i commented.

Allison and Noah Riley said...

Uh, oh - did the roomie in the picture used to say lots of things that made you stubborn? :)

Lauren! It's been too long! How have you been?!

lauren said...

hardly... though the pic makes me laugh because i think it's one of the only times i went to fhe when i was down at the y. which may or may not have been a manifestation of some of my more stubborn tendencies. :)

i'm doing really well. how are you doing? are you still liking nyc? how's the new place?

sara said...

a non-verbal shout out!!! thank you, lallipants! and i agree with you on having so much learn. i'm working on it. (annnd i'm pretty sure i could fill in some of those blanks, from that glorious year we were roomies.) miss you. love you. i'm here all throughout the break. hint hint...

sara said...

and to allison, i was not the one encouraging stubbornness. promise.
:)

Ashley said...

So what have you done now that is so ridiculous? I am no longer the one fighting your stubbornness so I'm curious to know.

Merry merry Christmas Lal! I wish we were going to be here long enough to get together, but between Adam's bro's mission call, temple, and family parties we are solidly booked until we leave. I hope you had a good, relaxing holiday.