They Don’t Like You, But They’re Watching Everything You Do
Some people don’t like you because
you see what they’re really about.
You’ve watched the mask slip
enough times to recognize what’s underneath.
And when it slips again,
you’re sitting there thinking,
There you go.
I knew it.
You’ve heard how they talk about
people behind their backs,
watched them twist conversations,
and seen how quickly they
become the victim when their
own behavior gets called out.
After years of the same mess,
you decide to fall back.
Now everybody has something to say.
Then again, when don’t they?
You think you’re better than everybody.
You don’t come around.
You’ve changed.
No. Your behavior and energy are
hindering my blessings, and I’m no longer
making room for either.
There comes a point when
you start paying attention to the
conversations you entertain and
the people you allow around you.
And age has nothing to do with it.
Some people have had sixty or seventy years
to figure out how to mind their business
and still haven’t gotten around to it.
Every conversation doesn’t need to be
turned into somebody’s personal drama,
and every disagreement
doesn’t require an argument.
You try to address an issue like two grown adults.
Before you can finish a sentence,
the interruptions begin.
The voices get louder,
the subject changes, and somehow
you’re defending yourself and your family
instead of discussing what actually happened.
And there you are, wondering how a simple
conversation turned into all of this.
Eventually, you realize you cannot make
somebody tell the truth, take accountability,
or communicate respectfully.
So you stop having the conversation
and dismiss yourself from being around them.
When you’re in someone else’s space
you tend to listen to things
you don’t really care about.
Things that have no relevance
to you or your family.
Listening to others people’s personal life
isn’t your concern.
Yet, those people have nothing else
to talk about but just that…
Other people’s business.
Who hasn’t paid their rent.
Who is borrowing money to pay car insurance.
Who needed money when
their car got repossessed.
Who doesn’t have furnisher in their home.
Hold on. Why do I know all of this?
More importantly, why do you feel
the need to share this with me?
At some point, you have to stop allowing
people to pour other people’s problems
into your life.
You have your own responsibilities.
Your own family.
And enough to handle without
carrying information that was never
yours to begin with.
Have you ever paid attention to how
comfortably they shared it?
They’ll tell you somebody’s entire business
today and sit across from that same person
tomorrow, like they wasn’t just
talking smack about them.
You peeped the behavior.
Until that same behavior comes knocking
at your door.
And when the truth starts coming out,
instead of owning what they did,
they cover one lie with another.
Then another.
Now the story has changed
so many times they can barely
keep up with their own bullshit.
Please.
At some point, it’s stops being
shocking and starts being sad.
All The lying, manipulation, and
dragging other people into the mess
just to avoid admitting what they did.
They rather keep changing the story
than change the behavior.
That’s pathetic.
And this is where you make a decision.
Are you going to keep explaining yourself
to people who already know what they did,
or are you finally going to leave them
where they are?
Because some people will have you defending
yourself against stories they made up,
then turn around and act offended
when you want nothing to do with them.
You don’t have to attend
every argument you’re invited to.
You don’t have to call everybody
to give them your version of events.
And you certainly don’t have to reconnect
with people who have shown you,
more than once, that they cannot be trusted.
You can’t keep giving somebody access
to your life and then act surprised when
they use it the same way they did before.
You saw what happened.
You know why you left.
Leave it there.
— Abi Brooklyn