They Never Did It

It kills me when people have so much advice to offer and so little experience. What I mean is, I dislike when people (particularly parents) want you to learn from their mistakes, but have no way of suggesting the proper means of going about a situation.

I respect the fact that parents want you to learn from their mistakes. Nobody wants someone they care about to learn the hard way after witnessing firsthand how hard it can be.

HOWEVER.

I have a hard time respecting the whole “do as I say, not as I do” thing. Every time someone says “go to graduate school” or “give that guy a chance” or any other suggestion that they have no personal experience with I get upset.

Because it’s unfair.

These people expect me to open myself to experiences that they never did. Paths that they imagine would have showed them greener pastures, but have no real insight to.

They are so fearful of me repeating their mistakes that they want me to adopt a path that I may regret, that simply is not my own, or that isn’t mine to find at this time.

These people can’t say “oh, this choice I made was great” or “it gave me ‘x’ opportunity”. They can just say, “I wish I had made that choice because I think it would have changed my life.”

No one but God can say what is ordained for my life, let alone a hypocrite. Be the change you want to see in the world, don’t tell me to do it.

I guess that what bothers me the most. Don’t live vicariously through me. Let me make my own way. And relent graciously.