But I Am Still Waiting - Did I Miss the Invite?
While driving home the other day, I was listening to one of my favorite shows on satellite radio. Not only is it hosted by a Bad Sister, but the topics are great too. They are funny and relevant, and I absolutely love the spin she and her cohost put on the topic of the day. On this particular show, they were talking about being okay with not getting invited. I immediately perked up because there are lots of emotions from a whole lot of people around this topic. During the show, the cohost said something that really resonated with me. While some people will say they are okay with not being invited, even when we know many of them are not, his response was on another level. He said there were many times when he was not invited. Why? Well he believed it to be because he was just overlooked. No one hated on him or tried to hurt his feelings or anything; they just simply overlooked him. Sometimes, it is just that simple!
I started thinking hard about this. I can’t put a number on how many times I was not invited, but I can tell you that it was not a great feeling any of those times. Like, no matter how hard I wanted them, there were times when the invitations just never came. As kids we are always hoping and waiting, even up to the very last moment, to get that call. However, we never do. This does not stop over time. Even well into adulthood, you don’t always get the invite. Being forty-something doesn’t make it sting any less than it did when you were ten either. No matter what anyone says, it hurts at all ages and stages of life. I have listened to people say they could care less about not being invited but then go on and on about the event and how so-in-so must be jealous. It is often painfully obvious that they really do care. Still, in their minds, the invite never came because the host is a hater.
Pause. Check Yourself, Girl! Sometimes, you are just missed. Even though not getting an invite seems personal, very personal, it really could have just been an oversight. People are busy. Life takes over and occupies people in ways we cannot always imagine, especially now. More often than not, what people do and do not do revolves around them-not you. I can bet that if you are really honest with yourself, you’ve overlooked people too. It happens.
Take a note from the cohost of my favorite show. No one is hating on you. Think about all of the circles that exist in your life. We have circles of “friends” from grade school all the way up through adulthood. Some of those circles have inner circles. That’s a lot of people. The older we get, the more circles we have. Someone is bound to get missed. It’s nothing more than that. Sometimes, we are just caught up in the oversight and not purposely left out. To be very frank, how many events do you actually show up to and support anyway? Complaining about the “principality” is not worth your good energy. Save your best stuff for a real emergency. A missed invite is not one of them.