My latest addition to “Despised Words/Phrases”, joining ‘Authentic’, ‘When are you going to have kids?’:
‘You are young/you have plenty of time”
1. I sincerely wish everybody has a long and healthy life, but that’s not true for everybody.
2. It implies that you know how much time people have, and you don’t know.
3. It implies you can control local and global events, and you can’t.
4. There are certain things you can do at certain times in your life, and its really hard to know when the curtains close on those periods. I am hopeful, but I don’t think I’ll be climbing Mt. Fuji at age 80. I don’t know if I’ll be sleeping in hostels at age 60. I’d love to see the Great Barrier Reef at 50, but it depends if its still there or not.
5. It completely invalidates somebody’s worry and fears. When somebody tells you “Don’t worry about it”. Half the time, you know what I do? I worry more.