I'm In It With You

The internet is what you make of it.

If you buy into political noise, quarter-baked conspiracy theories and rage-scrolling Twitter, well..

But if you take the time to figure out what actually contributes positively to your life, the all-seeing, all-knowing algorithm works pretty well.

My life right now is a lot of pasta queens, boxers who also happen to be super cheery vegan chefs, SO MANY German Shepherds, the best places to travel with kids (everywhere but mostly the National Parks) and Last Podcast on the Left.

It’s pretty great.

A couple of days ago, I wandered upon a Reddit thread asking, “What Does America Get Right?”

As a proud immigrant, I’ve opined heavily on this subject and my love of free refills, the public library system and perpetual poet laureate Bruce Springsteen is pretty well known but Redditor Golfamania distilled the essence of what I love about America:

Probably too late, but to recall what I once read: wandering hype people.

You never know when it will happen, but at some unexpected moment in America, someone is hyping someone up. Usually, this is performed by complete and total strangers.

Some dude pulls off wrapping a particularly full burrito? Person ordering it will point it out to the (completely unrelated) customer behind them and say something like “This guy’s got this burrito on lockdown!”

You order three extra shots of espresso at the coffee shop? “Oh, you’ve got this now, the day is YOURS”

Rest stop at 2AM playing some light gun game while your friend takes a dump? “Oh, there they go! Fuck those robbers up! Do it! Yeaaaaah!”

Wandering hype people exist everywhere in America. They celebrate small and large things. Americans genuinely love watching someone win, even if there’s no competition. From a half court buzzer beaters to having exact change, we feel this weird camaraderie when we share a moment of victory. Makes me think we’ve got a shot.

I like to believe I am a wandering hype person.

I will totally tell you that your dress is super cute and then, celebrate when you tell me it has pockets.

This weekend, I cheered a toddler taking wobbly steps with his dad and told a prospective new resident that she couldn’t pick a better place than Lake Worth to buy a home.

Oh and I celebrate when my dogs perform basic biological functions - “Good peeps, buddy! That was an excellent pee pee you did.” “Awww, you ate all your crunchies! Good job, mama bear!”

But I think all dog owners do this. Because y’know, we’re not history’s greatest monsters.

As a result, my kid is a hype person.

Will gets freaked out by exuberant celebration but he will clap and smile for you for like, a million things. Did you close the garage door? Good job! Did you share your cookie? Well done! Oh shit, did you eat an orange? Oh hell yes!

It makes me so happy that he’s taken these cues to heart and he wants to celebrate wins. Because a day above ground where someone gives you half of their cookie? I mean, that’s a pretty fucking good day and worthy of applause.

I joke (kinda) about wanting Will to be a surgeon but more important than that is making sure I raise an empathetic person who can see things from a different perspective and has the ability to slide into their flip flops.

The topic of empathy has come up a lot in my life lately. In a weird twist of confluence, both my husband and the HR department at work shared the Brene Brown Empathy v. Sympathy video with me:

Which, of course reminded me of this clip from The West Wing.

We’ve all been down a hole and we’ve figured how to get the hell out.

My divorce and rebuilding my life afterward was hard and even though I still deal with vestiges of it, I climbed out of that hole…with the help of my family and friends who took really good care of me when I needed it the most.

Being a first-time mom is the hardest thing in the goddamn world because I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m just trying to intuit as much as I can and make sure that Will is happy and taken care of. I 1000% couldn’t do this without John, my mom, my family and all of my friends who have kids and have gone through this before.

Y’all, it really does take a village and I’m down to join yours if you need me.

I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.