Haters Will Hate, So Shake It Off

by Alycia W. Morales
@AlyciaMorales

Life Lesson #4

For nearly five years, my oldest son, Ezra, would come home from school upset. Every time I asked him what was wrong, his response was the same. "So-and-so doesn't like me."

Sometimes, it was a variation of that. Someone was mean to him. Someone called him names. Someone he'd befriended didn't want to be his friend that particular day.
I sympathized with him. I can remember - very clearly - being a child who came home crying every day because I wanted to move back to Canisteo or be adopted by my aunt so I could live in Prattsburg. Because people there were nice to me. I had a lot of friends there. But I didn't have a lot of friends in Margaretville, and a lot of people weren't nice to me.

Kids can be so cruel.

And so can adults.

Here's what I've learned and what I've taught my son: Not everyone will like you. And that's okay.

We're blessed if we have a handful of people who will be our lifelong friends. And as we grow older and move and get new jobs and move again and meet more people, we'll find we don't get to talk with those lifelong friends as often as we'd like. But that doesn't mean we aren't still friends.

Because friendship is like riding a bike. Once you have a friend for life, you pick up right where you left off the last time you saw them/talked with them.

As for the rest of those people ... If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that city, shake off the dust from your feet (Matthew 10:13-15).

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