Excuses, Excuses...

There is no doubt about it... Life can really suck sometimes. As the popular phrase goes "Shit happens," right? Of course, some people's "shit" is worse than others. For some, life sucks when you have a bad day at work or if you get a flat tire on your way home. For others, it might mean something really devastating like having your leg amputated just days after your husband was violently murdered on your birthday. I certainly am not going to deny that the flat tire pales in comparison with the murdered husband. However, I think that so much in life is a matter of attitude and perspective.

Last week I mentioned that G and I play this game called Everquest II. Well, I logged in this morning and a bit of conversation in one of the game's chat channels caught my eye. This player, let's just call her "Girl", was bemoaning her plight in life. Not her game life, mind you, her real life. I am not sure why she was sharing this with random strangers in the game, but one would assume she was looking for either help or sympathy. The basics of her situation seem to be that she has no "heating oil"or money and is freezing. She said she lives in Maine, which I imagine, is indeed cold. (However, I am not sure what "heating oil" is, but it sounds a bit primitive. /shrug.) Anyway, Girl went on to say that she hadn't gotten paid in two months for her job, and the man that initially hired her has been let go from the company and now apparently she has no proof she was hired. Her complaint seems to lie with, well.. the entire state of Maine. She claims that every business owner only screws people over and that it is impossible to find a good job anywhere in the state.

At this point, the diverse community of EQII begins to chime in with their opinions and suggestions:

Player 1: Move
Girl: Haha. How? I have NO MONEY!
Player 2 : Join the Military, they will take care of you.
Girl: I can't join. I have a bad knee and back from being run over by a truck and dragged for 20 feet.
Player 3: Find another job.
Girl: There ARE no other jobs in this state.
Player 4 (which was me, btw): Sell plat from the game.
Girl: I don't even have the money to open a bank account to open a paypal so I can sell plat online.

At this point, I am sure you can begin to see a pattern emerging. No matter what suggestions people came up with, Girl was sure to have an excuse as to why it wouldn't work. People like this drive me insane! This conversation could go on for weeks, and she would probably never find a single thing that would help her, because instead of trying to actually make her life better, she would rather come up with excuse after excuse. I think the issue is that she doesn't really want to work to make her life better. What she really wants is to be miserable. Miserable, poor and unsuccessful is SO much easier to maintain than happy, wealthy, and prosperous. It's just easier to make excuses than to make changes. Bottom line.

You probably don't have to look too far to identify a minimum of four or five people that you know who are just like this. In fact, there are a lot of programs put in place in this country that allow people to just sit there with their hand out and complain that someone only put $10 in their hand rather than $20. Heaven forbid they actually got off their ass and earned any money or made some changes in their life. What I should have said to the "Girl" online is this:

"Here's a plan for you. Cancel your Everquest II account and save yourself $15 a month. Cancel your internet service. Sell your fucking computer. In fact, sell everything you have that you don't absolutely need but can get some money for. Then, buy a bus ticket to another state that doesn't have Maine's so-called labor issues or any other problem that you can complain about offhand. Buy one nice suit/dress/outfit and get your ass on the street every single day from dawn till dusk if that's what it takes, until you find a job, any job. Stop making excuses and start making your life better. Get out there and suck cock for rent money if you have to, but don't sit at home playing an online game through an internet connection on your computer that has good enough graphics to play it and complain to me about how poor you are and how unfair life is."

I wonder what she would have said to that.. ? Probably something like, "I can't move away and get another job because my son is here in Maine with my ex-husband and I am trying to get custody, but I was falsely arrested for a DUI and..." /sigh.