Our community can suck. From ignorant opinions to blatant rude comments, from back-handed deceit to putting people down for your own gain, negativity always manages to rear its ugly face no matter how hard we work at it. There are people out there that have put hundreds of hours of work, not to mention thousands of hard-earned dollars, into their vehicles. All to be met with “ What an ugly colour” or “Those wheels are too wide”. How does that make you feel when someone says it about your ride? What is the benefit to poclaiming your negativity to the world? Just be kind, appreciate the effort and the passion, even if the vehicle isn’t “for you”.
We’ve all been both victim, and perpetrator in these instances. I used to be the first one to call out any little detail that didn’t fit my view for someone else’s vehicle. I can recall a hundred times where I’d actually go out and look for something negative to comment on. I look back at all these times and just feel embarrassed. For me, I think it all stemmed from insecurity. I was insecure that I couldn’t ever finish a project, or I never saved enough to buy the nice wheels, or the aftermarket parts that I deeply wanted. My outlet for my insecurity was negativity. I wanted others to feel like I did. Hindsight is 20/20 and if I could do it differently, I would. But, having these experiences and gaining this wisdom over the years has led me to try and better the future, no matter how bad I was in the past.
There is truly nothing wrong with giving a compliment. Even walking down the street or through a parking lot, it’s so easy to say “Hey I think your stance is sweet '' or “Love how your truck looks like with M/Ts”. You never know, that could be the highlight of someones week. If you look at something and cannot find one aspect of it that you like, there is this fundamental saying that we can live by “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. What a wild concept!
There are so many of us that are leaders. We have people that look up to us, that’ll follow in our footsteps. Maybe it’s a younger sibling or a family friend, maybe it’s someone you met throughout your life. Regardless, you are setting an example for them and how they are going to approach their life as time goes on. Let’s just try to set good examples, and in doing that, we can build a better community for the ones that’ll take it over after us. Be the change you’d like to see, just be kind.
‘Till next time,