REAL TALK: Daydream

I USED TO DAYDREAM A LOT ABOUT GROWING UP. Because I thought, that maybe when I grow up, there wouldn't be mean kids to pick on me and laugh at my flaws anymore, and that I wouldn't have to walk the halls with my head down again. I thought that meanness only existed in childhood. I thought that if I strive to be the best version of myself—if I study real hard in college and eventually get a great career, I’d never ever face bullies again.

But now that I've grown, I learned we all can never outgrow meanness—that no matter how old you are, no matter how successful you can be, no matter where you are in the corporate ladder or no matter how many people you have helped or inspired, there will always always ALWAYS be people out there who’ll make you feel small with their biiig faaat unsolicited opinions—people who’ll make you feel like you don’t deserve to be where you are, people who’ll criticize you not for your improvement, but only to make you want to quit. They’re the ones who don’t really have anything to do with you—they’re not your boss, not your colleagues, not even your readers/followers or even your friends at least, but somehow it seems like their role and goal in life is to just hate on you.

Well lately, I've been meeting those kinds of people myself. And I know that somewhere along the way, I’ll be seeing them again and I’ll be hearing from them again.

Now I try to understand that it’s not in my job description to please them. I finally learned that we can never control meanness, there will always be that, but we can always choose the way we treat the people around us. I hope you use your choice very wisely and I hope that when you grow up and meet more of life’s bullies, you’ll remember that THE ONLY THING THAT HATERS CAN DO TO YOU IS MOTIVATE YOU TO BECOME BETTER.