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Heard a stranger at the bus stop say something that stuck with me
Waiting for the 42 bus downtown last Tuesday. This older guy next to me just blurts out "you can't fix people, you can only be there for them." He wasn't even talking to me. But I've been chewing on that for a week now. Has anyone else had a random comment from a stranger totally shift how you see something?
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the_xena11h agoTop Commenter
My mom used to say almost the same thing to me when I was in high school trying to fix my friend's bad choices. Took me years to actually get it, but she was right.
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nora11010h ago
Yeah, "took me years to actually get it" - that's exactly it. I used to think helping meant fixing everything for people, like if I just explained the right way enough times they'd snap out of it. But I had this friend in college who kept going back to a guy who treated her badly, and I spent months trying to talk sense into her. It didn't work, just made her feel judged. Eventually I realized she had to figure it out herself, and when she finally did, she came to me. I was wrong to think I could force that.
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