“If you go out Route 67 towards Galway, they have the best cider donuts out there!”
I was listening to a conversation on a recent morning and heard this comment.
I don’t live near Galway and going out Route 67 towards Galway would be a bit out of my way. Instead, I will get the cider donuts at the donut cart in town Sunday.
Why do we think the things that we know are the best?
“The best donuts in the world come from the King’s Donut cart!”
“No, the best donuts in the world are at The Salty Donut!”
“You have never had good ice cream until you have had it at the shop down the street from me!”
“Oh Yeah?!?! Have you been to the ice cream place in my hometown? Nothing better!”
We are all proud of where we live or where we grew up. We want to legitimize our existence and make sure that people know we are enough.
For the longest time I would hope for huge snowfalls in upstate NY so I could tell people about it and hope that they would look at me differently. If I was able to survive a two-foot snowfall and still make it to work on time, I must be enough. It was as if everything I did was not good enough and I needed to prove to people those two feet of snow is not enough to stop me!
I have struggled with being enough for a long time. I am getting better, but I still struggle. I want to jump in and tell people all about me. I want to be able to prove to them that I am smart enough, funny enough, worldly enough, redneck enough, man enough that they should take me seriously and like me.
Why do I need them to like me? Why do I need to tell them all about the cord of wood I split using a wood splitter in the 90-degree weather? (Just writing that is a humble brag and a way for me to be telling you that I am enough.)
I think it comes from an insecurity inside me. I am starting to figure out that the happiness I am going to feel can only come from inside. I can’t get it from someone else.
Deep down they could care less about me. They are too busy trying to prove to me that they are enough because they split two cords of wood with just an axe and a maul.
I am working my way to the spot where I can say- “Tell me more about those cider donuts in Galway and what makes them so good.” instead of “Well if you think those are good you should try the ones at Saratoga Apple-to die for!”
