Hangin’ With the Raisin Girl
Are you one of those people who dig through your breakfast cereal, picking out the raisins and tossing them in the trash? Then I may not be your cup of tea. (Or bowl of cereal in this case.) I’m not a cornflake girl. And I don’t drink the Koolaid.
I’m one of those people who don’t care if others staring because I laugh too loud. I don’t hide my love affair with food—seriously, I make crazy sounds of pleasure when I’m eating foie gras and drinking Bordeaux. I’m also the person you should take into court, because if you’re my friend, I’ve got your back.
When it comes to Facebook, and other social media, I don’t hold back when it comes to making pithy, witty comments, waving my freak flag, which often has a liberal logo on it, and posting whatever random ideas float to the surface of my consciousness. (As long as it isn’t hurtful.)
If you’re like me, you’ve reached that age when you realize this is who you are, and likely who you’ll be until they toss your ashes into your favorite body of water—or more likely in the backyard because it was easier. Hopefully, what they won’t do is eulogize you like this, “She was so… wait, what was she like?”
I already know what they’ll say about me: “She was a lot of fun to hang out with. She was honest, gregarious, open-hearted, and seriously opinionated. She liked clean sheets, was vexed by disorder, and somewhat critical. And lord, she sucked the oxygen right out of the room!”
At this point in my life, I know who I am, and I like that. I’ve accepted and embraced this person I’ve been working on all my life, and I give a little “You go girl!” to any woman (or man) who does the same. (Shout out to Christina Aguilera for loving her curvy body.)
What’s interesting is that on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc, you see so many people doing things that never happened when I was younger—airing their laundry, posting provocative photos of themselves and intimate details of their life, initiating and pursuing online spats, etc. And yet, for all this seemingly candid behavior, it seems like there are a lot of people looking for validation of who they are, because they don’t seem to know themselves. This is definitely not raisin girl behavior.
That’s because there’s a lot of posturing online. (And flat-out lying.) To grow as a person, you need to get honest, and allow yourself to have life experiences. Opening up to a close friend or family member about your problems, hopes and dreams, is a lot different from posting it on your status (along with the photo-shopped picture of you in a bikini). Knocking on the door to greet your girlfriend’s parents helps you realize that you can be brave, even though you wanted to sit in the car and text her instead. Taking the time to make a chicken soup from scratch and bringing it to your friend who could use serious cheering up is most definitely more rewarding than sending him a Get Well email.
Being authentic is about owning your life, not how many people are following you on Twitter, or how many friends you have on Facebook. And by the way, if those 1,000 Facebook friends actually showed up to scatter your ashes, what do you think they’d say? “She was… um… who was she anyway?”
So, I’m a raisin girl. There’s not many of us in the box, and that’s okay with me, but I’m genuine, somewhat fresh, and really real.
