I think sometimes we desperately want others to understand our life-decisions and we want to explain our side of the story and make sure others understand why we are set on these dreams: and we feel that even if they really believed in us, they are still looking down on us somehow and that maybe fate or God or the universe will catch up to our subpar choices and pay us back.
I wish others could see we are conflicted, that certain decisions are not easy, that nothing is as ideal as we hope, that we don’t always know if this is right or wrong, that we often decide what we feel is best at the time and that we really are trying our hardest while trying to make everyone happy. But there is no pleasing everyone, and probably not even fully ourselves, and some decisions are bound to make others angry.
We are bound to accrue enemies over a lifetime for the decisions we make — and we can’t control that. We can only control how we respond.
It does not help our case to be rude to our “enemies.” But it also does not help to constantly apologize for our life-choices and act sorry about the path we chose when it’s already so hard to figure out our one life on this earth.
J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain, Skeptical Christian 