William McGill

Are people always throwing their stories on you? Does it not feel like they are pouring the weight of the world onto your shoulders while you sit there and listen to them? Why do we let them do this? Is it because we might feel guilty if we don’t? Or is it because we were taught that it’s the right thing to do? What about that friend who’s in constant need of a therapist and doesn’t know it?

There has to be a way to deal with this in people. I mean, I want to listen because that’s what friends do… we help each other, right? But maybe there comes a point when we shouldn’t.

There was this friend of mine.. actually several of them over the years… Anyway, I always found myself listening to the stories of others; both good and bad. On and on they would talk about themselves and their life while never caring to know much about mine. Aside from us telling a few stories detailing parties, friendly girls, and material things, the conversations usually were selfishly one sided and lacking depth. By lack of depth I mean that whenever I took a conversation to a deeper more personal (sometimes spiritual) level such as asking them to analyze something about themselves they would become visibly irritated. For years I would just listen and play along with the superficiality of simple single-sided discussions until one day I realized something.

Life is more than the “worldly” things we find to busy ourselves with… its about our personal choices. I’ve always known that, but somehow it just makes more sense to me now. Right verses wrong, light vs. dark, and good vs. evil - that’s what everything is really about!

Today, I’m always engaging people with our talks in order to reveal more detail into their reasoning and mine too. That way I might reveal a glimpse of a persons moral fiber and know whether they are a true friend or not.

So know this; you don’t have to listen to someone go on and on about their life. You can chose to listen to something else. Like life itself and the song it sings. Then surround yourself with people (friends) who understand this as well.

No one can change your life but you.

You don’t have to settle for one-sided conversations and you certainly don’t have to be someones emotional dumpster.

- William McGill