Yesterday's Wine Post

Soooo yesterday...I was a couple of glasses of wine deep when I started writing about how "on top of the world I've been feeling". It makes me laugh now, but I guess sometimes we all have to gush. And, despite my soapbox antics, I believe I touched on a couple of important things that I want to talk a little bit more about: it comes down to a bit of culture shock.

My sister thinks I preach a little bit, and I know that's true, but I'm genuinely a "I want to yell this from on top of a mountain" type of person. Though living in the mountains, and despite my ability to yell from said mountains if I should choose, I end up preaching in blogger world and then anyone who wishes to subject themselves to my preaching gets to sort through my rants and shenanigans, deciding for themselves if there is really anything meaningful lying within these rambling paragraphs. But, I digress. Whoops!

Any who, back to this culture shock stuff. There is something that I have been noticing a lot recently. and I think I can call this reverse culture shock. However, it stems from an exposure to negative attitudes. For instance, yesterday I was filling out an application at the YMCA climbing wall while a girl I knew was working at the front desk. I was attempting to remember contact info and check little boxes while she was greeting the people who were walking into her place o' business. It was baffling how many people just walked past her and didn't say anything. That's instance number one, a small thing, sure, but it didn't really sit right. Then, I was having an interview at a health foods store when the manager asked me how I would prepare myself for dealing with angry customers, since as a cashier I could expect to hear a lot of grief from those on their way out the door. I was a little stumped by this question and told him about how I used to work for Greenpeace, so dealing with upset and emotionally abusive people was no big deal. Hah! Finally, I was chilling with some folks, I didn't know that well, when the conversation devolved into ranting about bosses and boyfriends and life in general. It was unrelenting and really more like girls just needing to "talk shit"...or something....I guess. I listened for a second and then had to walk away; it was exhausting. By the end of my day, I had come to the conclusion that though Thailand is a pacifist and generally calm place to live, (people never confront people to their face and are rarely, RARELY rude to one another) the whole world isn't like that. Well, duh, right? But, the thing is that I guess it just shocks me a lot more now. Simple courtesy like responding to a greeting, not taking your day out on a grocery store employee despite not being able to find any extra firm Tofurkey, or getting a sentence out sans "name calling" and shit-talking - these things matter. Being good to people around us...matters.

I really just can't stand to listen to people being rude, bringing each other down, or talking shit about others. I don't understand it. I don't have time for it. I think that it is a greater reflection of who WE are when we start popping off about someone else. Sure, emotions run high; people do things that are not always good and kind, and it can be really upsetting, irritating, unfair - what have you. Yet, I honestly think that there's got to be a better way to deal with it.

I'm not a saint here, by any means! Hah! Yeah, not at all, but I think it's sad when one of the glaring differences between being here and in Thailand is...I don't know...simple kindness?? Yeah, what the hell?

Around me people reinforce these attitudes and assumptions. My sister's boss has been worried about a coordinator coming in to work at their Santa Fe store from Washington D.C., because as the Chilean woman says, "Those people in D.C. are not like us." She insists, "We are warm, they are cool." It makes me laugh, but we don't all have reputations as nice people!

This is something that I've been trying to grow accustomed to. Now, maybe it's partly due to the fact that I can now understand what everyone around me is saying, so I can hear when people are unkind to one another...hah!, but it has definitely struck me and I believe that if we project positivity, it just makes sense - good things will come back to us.

So, now I'm doing that whole job hunt deal, like I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I'm taking my resume to schools, gyms, grocery stores...anywhere!...but, like I said, things just FEEL a little different than any other job hunts I've ever been on. I've been all sorts of chipper and positive - grooving on the ol' peppy step, if you will...haha - and it's like opportunities just keep falling in my lap. Hey, people say attitude is everything, well, I'm noticing a lot of attitudes around me and I'm definitely seeing the difference.

We don't need abrasiveness and bringing people down to bring ourselves up. We don't need negativity and, honestly, I thought bitching and shit-talking was something people graduated from once the secret got out on how hollow it is. If we barely have time to be with the people we want to be with, doing the things we want to do, in the places we want to be in, why fill it up with negativity? Opt out!

I guess, at the end of the day, when life is just charging along at unbelievable speeds, we just have to leave the spilled milk and yesterday's wine alone.