I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a grump today, which is making small annoyances hit particularly hard. I just can’t with people today.
Friend messaging me to complain about the same boyfriend she’s been complaining about for months? Ugh. Neighbors deciding that three in the morning is a great time for a game of basketball just below my bedroom window? Ugh .
I try not to let my odd negative mood affect other people.
I’m not always successful, but I like to think I’m doing my best.
Some people clearly don’t bother to try, though. If they’re having a bad day, everyone else is going to have one too.
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And then there are the people who just make everyone’s lives miserable regardless of their own mood.
It’s like, instead of waking up on the wrong side of the bed, they were born on the wrong side of the entire hospital.
You know the ones. They are often the worst people to be with because they just radiate negativity to everyone around them.
I’m not talking about the truly evil people who go out of their way to hurt others. I’m talking about the ones who either don’t care or simply don’t even grasp that everything they say is negative.
I have one friend who is like that who I haven’t been able to shake since childhood.
No matter what is going on, she’ll find the one negative thing to point out. When my family bought a new house with a huge pool in the back, she literally chose the lack of a backyard lawn to focus on.
And then asked when she could come over for a swim.
Some of these sorts of people improve as they mature, but others just double-down on the negativity.
I’ve cut off contact with more than one person who has simply brought nothing to the relationship besides that negativity.
It’s hard to do, but it’s also one of the most freeing things when the hard part is over. It’s like you’ve lost a weight that you didn’t realize was holding you down.
