Dear daughter, I know how hard it is to learn to love yourself. And I know how hard it is not to be liked by others.
Recently, my teen daughter told me about a girl on her team who she knew didn’t like her.
She didn’t bully her. She didn’t blatantly say things to hurt her feelings.
But she could feel the disdain. She could feel the tension.
So, my daughter kept trying. She struck up conversations that didn’t go anywhere. She tried to do some nice things.
But this girl was not interested.
It’s odd, because they actually have a lot in common, but no matter how my daughter played it, this other girl was not a fan.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept not being liked.
You know what it’s like, when no matter what you do the other person just despises you, and it is crystal clear.
I have some experience with this phenomenon. I know it’s shocking, but there are people that don’t like me (said with huge sarcasm.) They find me pushy or stuffy or awkward or too much..
Some of these people I’m related to, and it’s hard. Some of them don’t even know me, and that’s hard, too.
I know we often provide a litany of excuses for why this happens in order to make us feel better. It’s because the other person is jealous or insecure or miserable.
But none of those things actually ever made me feel better. It was hard for me to know that there was animosity between myself and someone else, and I was pretty much powerless to do anything about it. The more I tried, the less these people liked me.
And that’s what it really is about, right? The lack of control we have over a situation; the feeling of defeat.
If you are like me (and I hope you are not), you may have agonized over why this person did not like you, analyzed every interaction. hypothesized how conversations would go. I would talk endlessly about these situations with my husband or friends. I would come to terms with it in one moment and then break down about it the next day.
I let it consume me.
Learning to love yourself means accepting that others may not like you–and that’s okay.
One day, when I was mindlessly cleaning out my refrigerator, I came across a jar of olives in the back that we had for a holiday party many moons back, As I went to empty the jar into the garbage disposal, I realized that sometimes I’m just like an olive to some people.
I hate olives.
It doesn’t matter what color they are or how you dress them up or what you throw them into, I can’t stand them. I can’t even eat a slice of pizza that an olive rested upon because I can still taste the olive remnants.
If you’re someone’s olive, you just have to accept it and move on, because you are never going to make someone love olives. But here’s the thing…some people LOVE olives. They’ll eat all the olives and even drink the juice.
And usually, when someone loves olives, they LOVE olives. They love every salty, briny, slimy bit of those olives, and that’s the way love should be for people too. Thank goodness some people love olives.
Or, you can be like a slice of boring Wonder bread that everyone will tolerate when they have to, but no one yells out, “Oh my God this is the best bread ever! I love Wonder bread!”
It’s okay if someone doesn’t like olives because there are plenty of people that do–and that’s where our focus should be.
But, here’s the thing about coming to terms with it. The most important question to ask yourself isn’t why does someone not like you, but instead, do I like myself?
Do you believe you’re a good person? Do you try to be better than the day before, learn from your mistakes, be kind when you can? Do you support your people and love them well, every salty, briny, slimy bit of them?
When you can say yes to these things, then you can just realize it’s personal preference and life choices.
I hate animosity and try to resolve it at all costs. I can put something to bed when I realize I’ve done my part to make it better, but sometimes someone just doesn’t have a taste for you.
So, what did I tell my daughter about the girl on her team? “Do what you need to do in a relationship to feel at peace with yourself, but always remember, you can’t make someone love an olive.”
And trust me, I’ve tried.
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