I'm just going to put it out there. Sometimes we pretend that everything is O.K. because you want people to think that everything is O.K. because it's easier to not have to explain everything that is not O.K. and it's easier to just be O.K. O.K?
Anyway, Josh and I had lunch together today. I don't need to even go on the "Josh is the best guy in the world" rant that I tend to do when I mention the great things he does for me. But, while waiting in line for my sandwich, I almost start to cry. I'm not sure if you have those moments when something just sort of clicks(or, ahem, a lot of somethings) and after all the time you've been holding it in, it comes out in the wrongest of times. Like in a busy line. At a sandwich joint. In a sandwich joint where there are a lot of big dudes who probably never cry. And just as I was about to bite my lip and hold back a gushing of warm tears, I discovered a framed poster on the wall near the counter. It read:
I Believe-
that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
I Believe-
that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
I Believe-
that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
I Believe-
that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by other. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I Believe-
that no matter how bad your heart is broken that the world doesn't stop for your grief.
I Believe-
that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
I Believe-
that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other.
And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
I Believe-
that you shouldn't be eager to find out a secret.
It could change your life forever.
I Believe-
that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.
I Believe-
that you should always leave loved ones with loving well wishes. It may be the last time you see them.
I Believe-
that you can keep going long after you can't.
I Believe-
that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
I Believe-
that we don't have to change friends, if we understand that friends change.
I Believe-
that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
I Believe-
that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
I Believe-
that you either control your attitude or it controls you.
I Believe-
that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, that passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.
I Believe-
that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
I Believe-
that money is a lousy way of keeping score.
I Believe-
that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
I Believe-
that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down, will be the ones who help you get back up.
I Believe-
that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
I Believe-
that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.
I Believe-
that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.
I Believe-
that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
I Believe-
that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.
They say that everything happens for a reason. We do things, see people, go places in the exact precise time. Unnamed forces just push us to these places because these aforementioned unnamed forces just know there is something there for us to realize.
As I took of my heavy winter coat and stepped in to my apartment after walking home from lunch, I found the poster online and printed it to put somewhere I can read it and be reminded that in the end... no matter who breaks our heart a million times or how many bills there are still left to pay or how damn scary a particular health condition is getting... somewhere there is a poster to remind you who you really are:
A guy that has to be and will be O.K.
