Have you ever been excited about something? Or at least felt like you were making all the right moves and had things under control? But then someone came along and decided to make you doubt yourself? If so, you’d got yourself a hater.
A “hater” is someone who enjoys tearing you down. Someone who criticizes any exciting, if slightly different, idea you may have.
Case in point:
I’m 100% into the idea of studying abroad at some point during my college years. Ideally, I’d like to spend part (or all?) of sophomore year in another country. I’ve mentioned this to a few people several times now.
One of those people, “Abby”, has decided to hate on my plans. She went on and on about how it’s expensive. About how I’m not realistic. That I haven’t even started college yet and don’t know how I’ll adjust to that lifestyle. Then she reminded me how you can’t just pick a country and hop on a plane. A passport is needed. Forms need filled out. (Yes, I shouldn’t study abroad because there are forms to fill out. Scary stuff.)
Not one “Oh, that sounds like a good time!” or “Where do you want to go?”. Just an almost endless string of road blocks.
The irony of course is that in one breath she says that study abroad takes lot of planning and is expensive. In another, she says that it’s too early to plan for. You know what time is good for? Planning and saving!
My situation is just one of many possible “hater” scenarios:
Decide to stop eating out in order to escape living paycheck-to-paycheck? Expect someone to hate. This person will probably say that there’s no way that will work and the man is keeping you down.
Decide to spend saved up money on something you really enjoy (electronics, cars, trips, etc.)? Expect someone to hate. They’ll most likely say that your spending is excessive. Their $300 a month car payment, however, is perfectly reasonable.
But How Do You Solve the Problem of Haterz?
Simple: you ignore them. There’s already too much negativity in the world. I know I don’t need to listen to anymore of it and I’m guessing you don’t want to, either. If someone decides to hate on your plans, say “STFU, I’m doing it.” Don’t allow for anymore discussion.
The bonus of course is that you should have even more passion to do whatever it is you’re being hated on for. What better “revenge” than to actually follow through with your plan and prove the hater wrong?
Bonus Video:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ignore the haters. If you want to I did a 4-month exchange in Korea and it was a great experience; I learned a lot, and my horizons definitely broadened as a result of that exchange, and it wasn’t even that expensive to boot.
Woops, didn’t finish one of my sentences up there…
“If you want to” go and do it, then do it! You probably will have a great time, and you will gain interesting experiences which will stay with you for the rest of your life.
I assume you were in South Korea? Was the language barrier tough to adjust to? So far, I’ve mainly just considered western Europe but I haven’t ruled out Asian countries.
Well here’s one. That sounds like a good time. I always wished I did a study abroad, but it did indeed always seem too expensive. But if you’re living on campus anyway, the biggest extra expense of is already part of your budget, doing it overseas probably only adds the cost of your plane ticket.
Europe has a reputation for being expensive, but this isn’t really the case. Exchange rates have changed, making Europe cheaper, but even a few years ago, living there wasn’t too bad. The biggest thing is that labour and energy are labour intensive (restaurants, hotels, personal services) and energy intensive (transportation and heating) are expensive.
But groceries are cheap, liquor is cheap, and people who live there are more prone to use lower-energy means of transportation (trains, bikes…), and may live slightly less comfortably to conserve heating oil. Living there is a whole different affair from traveling there, price wise, but most people equate the amount they spent on their holiday with the amount it must cost to live there.
That’s what I was thinking too. I won’t be paying room and board at my home university. And some of the money I spend abroad was going to be spent at home anyway – eating out, movies, etc. So while it’ll be an extra expense, it’s not unreasonable.