Opinions on High

You know the people who will randomly ask questions to springboard their opinions? “So, when are you ever going to graduate?” or “Are you ever going to get a boyfriend?” Opinionators, those with too many opinions, slip those opinions into conversations so expertly it’s practically a Jedi mind trick. The trick is making you so stunned and unprepared that you stumble over your answer and are wide open for attack. Opinion blood hounds.

I want to do a million different things and get the most out of life. People’s reaction will be, “That’s not realistic, it will probably never happen.” I believe in my future and what I will become and accomplish; yet, those pesky pessimists would like to tell me otherwise, and enlighten me on what the world is. Friends and family are always giving the “advice” as they call it, it’s not. Opinions.

I am in love with the past, content with the present and constantly thinking about the future. My exuberant and incessantly optimistic outlook on life is like blood to these hounds. They crave it and sit there staring and practically drooling, waiting to sink their teeth into something I say.

When I have the privilege of being enlightened by someone, the sequence of events is always the same. I talk. They listen. I finish and look at them, we lock eyes. They give me a somber smile, look down and take a deep breath. Here we go. When they finish the opinion rampage, I smile and nod my head like I understand, or care, what they were trying to say and change the subject.

It’s strange though. It’s not that Milwaukee is a judgmental place, or even the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin for that matter. People on campus might in fact be the least in-your-face opinion people I’ve ever known. Unless you ask someone for their opinion, then you may have just started a week long debate.

I may not know everything that is going to happen, but at least I have the will to take risks and be ready to fail.

I didn’t ask for your opinion on my love life. I didn’t ask for your opinion on how many degrees I’m going for or how long that will take. I didn’t ask for your thesis when it comes to my friends, and I for sure didn’t ask for it when it comes to my life in the future.

You told me anyways. Opinions.