Yes, you CAN run away from your problems.

When I was a kid, I skipped a lot of school, never did homework, rarely did my chores, didn't eat vegetables, and constantly ducked out of whatever I was supposed to be doing. My parents and teachers and preachers and school counselors told me "You can't run away from your problems." Yeah, well, says you.

I continued being the kid who wasn't there, but me being eight years old and them being adults, I figured I'd regret it someday. I assumed that those adults knew what they were talking about. That was a big mistake on my part.

It turns out, you really can run away from your problems, or most of them. You can't run away from death or disease, and there's no skipping out on climate change or an afternoon with the in-laws, but you can easily run away from smaller scale ordinary day-to-day problems.

My boss was an idiot and the workplace was toxic. I quit. Several times.

Had a girlfriend who was kooky and clingy and always trying to make me a better man. Maybe she's making someone else into a better man, but this man walked away.

I took my nephew in when his parents kicked him out, because I loved the kid. When he was actually living with me, though, I soon understood why his parents had booted him out. I booted him out, too.

My family is weird and some of them drive me crazy. So I moved. They're much less likely to drive me crazy from 2,000 miles away.

Please and of course, put some effort into solving your problems — I'm not saying to run away from everything. Maybe you can't run away from a particular problem, or maybe you can but shouldn't. I've had a few situations where I cared so damn much that I stuck around instead of running away. Staying and helping was the right thing to do and I did the right thing, for a change. No regrets about that.

But when you come across some problem that can't be solved, saying adios is usually a viable option. It works. You can walk away.

 9/4/2020  
Republished 7/8/2023  

 itsdougholland.com
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