Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Writing Prompt: It didn't occur to her to . . . . .

It didn't occur to her to . . . . .

It didn’t occur to her to stand up for herself. To put her foot down and stop taking other peoples shit. It didn’t occur to her to say “I neither want nor need to be spoken to like this. That’s rude and I don’t need to take it from you. Talk to me with respect or don’t talk at all!” It didn’t occur to her to say “Excuse me! I have the floor! You can speak when it’s your turn.” Or, “Do you mind if I talk while you interrupt?”, sarcastically of course. It didn’t occur to her because she is a laid back, easy going, mild mannered person who doesn’t like confrontations, doesn’t like appearing rude… and so she just was quiet and didn’t say anything. She had been taught by her mother to “be nice”.

Finally, she has realized she’s tired of it. She’s tired of “being nice” all the time, tired of being walked on and taken advantage of. Tired of being a patsy. It’s time for her to speak up, to stop caring if people like her or not because trying to make people like her hasn’t exactly gotten her too far to date. She’s starting to see it’s time to change her mild mannered ways and start getting mad if that’s what it takes to stand up for herself. She has always been able to stand up for the ones she loves if they are in anyway threatened, but has rarely if ever, truly stood up for herself. Now she sees it’s time to do just that, to stand up for herself as she would for someone she loves. It’s time to love herself enough to stand up for her too. It’s time to rock the boat!

Lookout world cuz here she comes! Prepare to get seasick!

Namaste

Alice

Imma BoatRocker

2 comments:

Alice (in BC Canada) said...

The response to this writing prompt was inspired by my frustrations after a Board Meeting. Tonight I have another Board Meeting to go to. I printed this out and am going to paste it into my journal to read again just before the meeting and have it sitting in front of me to remind me...

Liz Hinds said...

Hope it inspired you to rock the boat!

It's what I need to do too, in regard to my boss. Nicely but firmly stand up for myself.

Thank you.