July 20th 2026

It's odd how sometimes friends and family get angrier and more passionate about how you live your life than you yourself do, that the decisions you made are wrong according to their standards. The audacity. You start to wonder if it's about you or if it's about them.

Sometimes I am guilty of it too. It's so easy to judge and think we have the answer to how others should live their lives, as a bystander or as someone who can recognize or see the whole picture from outside. But at the end of the day, none of us has the answer. We are all still just figuring things out. So maybe don't overexert your opinion, as it comes off as intrusive.

Nobody likes to think you know them better than they know themselves, which is, in fact, true. Don't put them in the dilemma of having to choose between refusing your help, which might come off as arrogant, or hurting your feelings. They are already dealing with a lot of shit; don't pile on more. Every easy solution you recommend comes with a caveat, extra, underlying steps and problems to work through before it gets better. Sometimes, just lending a listening ear helps more than you know.