This is a guest post for my “Getting Real” series. On this blog, we provide “pure human content,” and truly get real. I wanted to give other bloggers the opportunity to come on here and get real with me! I am so excited for the opportunity to invite other bloggers to join me and share their life experience and big feels. Interested in sending over a guest post and being part of the “Getting Real” series? Send me an email!

Now without further ado, let’s get real…

First of all, I want to thank Renata for this opportunity. Ever since I first read her impassioned French fry rankings (I still think steak fries got a bum rap), she has been one of my favorite people in the little blogging community I’ve managed to stumble my way into.

And now, our tale …

Of all the things I’ve done, all the lessons I’ve been taught and all the stuff I’ve figured out, there are some … I don’t know if you want to call them “observations” or “maxims” or “rules to live by” … that inform the way I try to live my life.

— If you say you’re going to do something, do it.

I don’t like to make a lot of promises, because I don’t want to take the chance I might break them and let people down.

— Try to do the right thing and treat people with respect, and things will generally work out.

I’m not a particularly idealistic person, but this may be as close as I get. Plus I have this weird belief that life should be fair.

— Every day, you get to wake up and be who you are, but the people who hurt you get up and have to be who they are.

It’s how I try to remind myself and others not to let bad people bring me or them down.

— Be on time.

This has to do with doing what you say you’re going to do and treating people with respect, but I can’t stand being late, and I can’t stand when other people keep me waiting.

— Right is better than popular. 

Don’t get me wrong … being popular isn’t bad, and I’d love to be more popular, but I’ve also seen too many times when people sucked up to the popular folks and all they did was make themselves look foolish. Not worth it to me.

But if I’m right, I’m right, I’ve earned it and you can’t take it away from me.

However, there’s one thing that stands out above all the others …

… I’m me.

Well, of course I’m me, right? It’s not like I can be anyone else.

But you see … that’s the thing. Because I’m me, I don’t have to be like anyone else. 

This doesn’t mean I’m some kind of wild nonconformist, because I’m really not. I’m actually fairly ordinary, even boring.

What it does mean is that if a highlight of my week is going upstairs on Thursday night to watch two hours of a former politician traveling around by train, it may not be your cup of tea (fitting, since the former politician is British), but it is mine.

Parties are fine, but I’d rather just hang out with one or two friends.

It means that sure, the Venn diagram of NASCAR fans who also enjoy musical theatre may be two circles that barely touch, but it works for me.

I take an exercise class with mostly women, and play pickleball with people 20 years older than me, and I love doing both.

My taste in music is probably as middle-of-the-road as it gets, but it’s what I enjoy listening to.

You could take me to a restaurant with $100 entrees, but if the only thing that appeals to me is a hamburger, I’m ordering a hamburger … and not with all sorts of fancy stuff on it, either. I want a burger, a bun and ketchup.

I could go on — really, I could — but the important thing is that I learned early in life that I could decide how to live my life based on what I wanted to do, not what everyone else was doing. (The context is different, but maybe all those times my mother would say “If all the other kids were jumping off a bridge, would you?” sunk in.)

Other people can do whatever they like. They’re them.

And I’m me.

Author Bio:

Hi, I’m Bill. Years ago, a friend of mine from high school referred to “life’s grand pageant,” and I’ve never been able to think of a better way to describe my writing.

Lots of stuff happens in life. It can be happy, sad, meaningful, trivial, funny, goofy or annoying.

But there’s a story in almost everything. What I try to do with this blog is tell those stories from the stuff that happens in my life.

There are two reasons why my blog is called A Silly Place. One is as a tribute to my late cat Silly. The other is that life can be, well … silly.

So please, come join me at the pageant.