The Rejected Status

"The whole experience of being left out is one of the basic driving forces of human experience."

Dear Journal,

I was reading an article in Newsweek about rejection and the side effects that it may have on a person. That it can lead to lower intelligence scores, weakened immune systems, acts of aggression or anti-social behavior.

The reality is it hurts to feel excluded or rejected from someone we care about like a close friend, to someone we could care less about, like a co-worker you only say hi to, but of course it’s going to hurt more from someone we know.

Like when I hangout with my previous co-workers, all I hear is them going out together or what’s happening with each other; even personal things in their lives. It’s easy for them to do that because they’re part of each others life.

Of course I feel excluded, I’m not going lie about it, because I’m not in that group. It’s hard to try and talk with them about events that you were never part of. So I just sit there, put a smile on my face, and pretend everything is fine.

Even when people ask how I am, I know it’s difficult because we’re not in each others life. You can only ask so much before stopping the conversation.

Anyway, the article goes on to describe a paradox of sorts, that the more we feel rejected the more we “push away our connections”, that it is like a self-protective mechanism.

That Thumping Sound

Dear Journal,

I really hate my new apartment neighbor, why because the asshole doesn’t seem to understand the word “courtesy”.

It’s 12:09 a.m. right now and he’s been playing his fucking music for 5 damn hours. All I can hear in my apartment is bass, bass, and more bass … my bedroom now sounds like you’re in a club.

My head is throbbing and I’m at the verge of going crazy. I can’t pinpoint the exact apartment, but I’m 98% sure it’s the new guy who just moved in next door. Seriously … you’re playing music that loud right now?

And nope it’s not the first time either, this happened last Saturday when I awoke around 03:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom, he was STILL playing music.

I’m planning on talking to my apartment manager tomorrow or seeing if there’s a number I can call to report the noise, because i don’t appreciate it. I think someone tried asking him to turn the noise level down because I heard knocking about an hour ago.

Guess he chose to ignore it or couldn’t hear it.

And if the apartment manager is not going to do anything about it, then they’re going to lose a decent tenant. Stupid neighbor.

- A