On Allergies.

I was 5 the first time I got strep throat. It was fun. Being the ‘I’m so adverse to a doctor's office I’ll pass out just thinking about one’ kind of mom she is, Julie waited until I was pretty sick to take me to see a pediatrician. Upon arrival they swabbed my tonsils, gave me a shot of penicillin and some antibiotics, and sent us home. Like any young sickling would do I fell into a fitful slumber only to wake up to a head-to-toe poison ivy looking rash and faint breathing. Low and behold we found out I have a penicillin allergy. It turned out to be nothing that a hot oatmeal bath and time couldn’t fix, but at the time it SUCKED. I mean, obviously it really, really sucked- I still remember how it felt (and I don’t have that good of a memory). Now, 18 years later, any time I frequent a doctor’s office the first thing I’m sure to note on my chart is that I’m allergic to penicillin. I swerve on that hoe so hard.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault that I had such a bad allergic reaction to it. We never would’ve known if it wasn’t for the trial-and-error. But we left it at just that- one trial and one error.

The older I get the more I’ve started to view certain types of people as allergies. In a world of 7 billion plus we’re bound to butt heads with a few different personality types. We’re unique individuals with different tastes, motivators, passions, etc. There’s absolutely no way we could all live in perfect harmony together. Sorry if that sounds cynical but Eve supposedly ate the apple, not me. I was even browsing around in Barnes & Noble one time and I saw a book titled 'The Sociopath Next Door.'  It's written by a psychologist who claims that 1 in 25 Americans is a sociopath. Suffice it to say that's one type of person right there I'm allergic to.

Do I think everyone deserves a second chance? Absolutely. Humans are entitled to a few more trial-and-errors than a life-threatening medicine. At the same time, there’s no point in forcing certain relationships to work- whether they're intimate, platonic, family related, etc.- if they just don’t work. It doesn’t mean either of you is a bad person. It means that, for whatever reason, the two of you cannot and will not see eye-to-eye. So save yourself some allergic reactions and go hangout with one of the other 6,999,999,999+ people in this world.

Main Takeaways:

'Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.'

Surround yourself with others that see the best in you even when you're all 'sweat pants, hair tied, chillin' with no makeup on' ...both metaphorically and literally.

xo.