Taking things too personal... it's one of my bad traits. This entire post stems from two events, each of which happened in around 30 seconds but have played on my mind for a useless amount of time! Event one - our neighborhood bulletin printed an insult about my street. Event two - my daughter's preschool teacher lent me a book to read over the school vacation. Both seemingly meaningless yet both equally bothered me (most men reading this post are already rolling their eyes by now). How did this come about... taking things too personal??? Is it because I'm too sensitive? Is it because I'm selfish and think things revolve around me? Is it from years of dealing with
passive aggressive people who don't dare to be direct? Is it because I'm a woman (now the feminist are rolling their eyes)? Is it because I'm
self-conscious? No matter what the reason, it happens, but it is something I'm working on. You're probably wondering how the above events led to this post.
Event one : I've proudly lived on my street for the past 6 yrs and I take it personal when the neighborhood
bulletin prints insults about it. How can I possibly feel for a street, it's ridiculous, but I do! Sure I've noticed the decline (thanks recession), but that doesn't mean we're an embarrassment. Just so you understand what happened, the bulletin wrote an article about a new shop on my street and this is what they said, "Renew Fashion lijkt een aanwinst voor de straat die toch een beetje het 'ondergeschoven' kindje van de Bergen lijkt te blijven". Basically they're saying our street is neglected, almost not worthy of belonging to the neighborhood, and that the new clothing store is a plus for us. Nice, we're not worthy of belonging to the high-brow neighborhood, "De Bergen". I take this personal, we're part of the neighborhood, yes we're on the outer rim, but that's good, we don't get the high traffic of the stores and restaurants, yet we're close by. Our street doesn't get shut down for every event, yet we can still see them from our window. I also take it personal because we're trying to sell our apartment and this isn't a great advertisement. It bugs me so much I almost want to contact the bulletin and complain... if you know me well, you know I'll write a complaint letter or email in a blink of the eye! Companies should know where they can improve (I promise I'm not a super negative person, I just notice things). I am also highly aware I could have translated it incorrectly, it wouldn't be the first time I was offended over something that I misinterpreted!
Event two : my daughter's preschool teacher lent me the following book - How To Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way. What is she saying, does she think I need some guidance raising my kid? Does she think I don't understand the
Montessori system? Was she just happy to find an English book she could share with me? Does she too see how amazing my daughter is? I tried not to take it too personal. But on the walk home from the preschool I called my husband to run it by him (he's more level-headed than me and not so emotional) and he basically said I'm being crazy... something I hear often from many people! Wow, as a parent it's hard when people try and help, it's so easy to take it too personal and take it negatively when really they're just trying to share something or speaking from experience. No matter what, I'll do my best to read the book, and hopefully learn something. It never hurts to get a little advice, even if it steps on some toes.
All in all, especially after re-reading this post, I can definitely say I'm being oversensitive and taking things too personal, oh yeah, and being extremely negative. And the only true thing I can blame it on is, caring too much so I take everything to heart. It's important to me to be able to step back and analyze my opinions/views/decisions... to look at things from an outsiders point of view... and to be aware of my faults. It's how I grow, it's how I understand myself and others, and it's a tactic that has helped me through many situations. (I'll try and make the next post a bit more light-hearted!)
Since the economy took a turn for the worst a few years back it's become quite obvious that a lot of stores & companies are struggling to survive. Across the street from where I live is a great corner spot for a shop, but thanks to the economy nothing seems to be surviving in this location. Maybe it's such a prime spot that no one can afford the rent??? Anyway, over the years it has hosted many shops like a bed store, teak furniture shop, temporary design outlet, and the latest, an art shop called Cobra Art Company. I must admit, the art shop has been my favorite so far. Why, because it was like having an art gallery across the street. I found out that all of the artists are Dutch, so no imports. It was fascinating, eye popping, and worthy of such a popular corner. There were many bold pieces, ones I would love to have purchased except they were quite pricey (over €1000 per piece). After realizing there was no way I could afford one of these unique pieces, I started wondering what normal people actually can. This made me realize there was little chance this store would survive. But it turns out this art isn't meant for normal consumers like me, it's meant for businesses and designers to resell. I crossed my fingers hoping the high end furniture store next door would pull in the big spenders and the right companies keeping the store alive but unfortunately it didn't happen. According to our neighborhood bulletin the art shop was a trial for 3 months, if it was successful it would stick around longer. Well, 3 months is over and this passed week the company swept through the shop and cleared out the colorful collection of portraits and uniquely staged scenes. I'm sad to see it go, I truly enjoyed watching the collection rotate. Once again it was like visiting an art museum without having to actually pay to visit. Apparently Cobra is quite a large company and has many dealers and displays, too bad they couldn't afford to liven up our street corner any longer!
