Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose and Sometimes It Rains

One of the benefits of being openly social online and offline is that you stop bothering about one single person. Hearing people's honest personal opinions of you almost everyday, via emails or face-to-face conversations, makes you a lot less sensitive and a lot more predictive. And you'll not only realize than sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but that sometimes it rains. That tables turn often, after a while.

image: flickr.com

I grew up as the super sensitive nerdy kid. I took people's comments about me very personal. And I had a not so happy childhood. Naturally, people complain more than they praise. It's just the way we are. On a road that experiences traffic jam for just 6 hours in the entire 24 hours of the day, all you'll most likely hear if you could analyse all comments about that road will be complaints. And so I heard more negative comments about me than positive ones. And I took them all personal. And ended up unhappy for the greater part of my childhood. 

Then in my late teens, thanks to the crazy people I lived around in the University, I realized that comments about me are simply individual opinions, and as the same people are wrong about a lot of things, they are usually wrong about me too. So I moved into the "Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose" mindset. Some people will like you, for both wrong and right reasons, and some people will hate you, also for both wrong and right reasons.

Then I began blogging in 2009. Writing out my heart online and being on over 20 social networking sites. The whole world shrinked from a plane ride away to a click away. I realized that at the core, every human is the same. Regardless of location and education. I began to see a part of me in others and a part of them in me. And then realized that sometimes it rains. It's always never about winning or losing. People care more about being heard than being right. And on the few times they are right, things change. Situation changes and the people involved also change.

Now, in my social interactions with people I don't just think "They like me or not", "They are right or wrong", "They know me or not", "They win or lose". Most times, especially when they think I'm some jerk, I simply tell myself -- today must be a rainy day.