Do you think about me still?

“Good luck.”

It’s a phrase you repeat time after time. It is something you say when you bid someone farewell. It’s a phrase that doesn’t matter who it is being said to; it could be said to a close friend or a complete stranger, both have the same meaning.

When a close friend tells you they are taking a big step in their life you say it. When a complete stranger tells you that they are going on a weekend trip to some small cabin by a lake you say it.

It’s the same two words no matter what.

I don’t want to be told these words anymore.

These words are depressing.

When someone tells me GOOD LUCK I instantly think to myself:

YOU DON’T CARE.

I’ve been told GOOD LUCK by complete strangers who quit thinking about me the second I leave their sight. They don’t care. They don’t care about where I end up, they don’t care about my “luck.” They just know that is what they are socially obligated to say. It makes me sick. I don’t want your luck.

Everyone is so programmed to have certain responses to certain situations. You get so caught up in what you should say that you quit saying what you actually feel. Everyone gets in this habit, I am guilty too.

What if you actually started telling people what you felt?

What if they didn’t care so they said nothing?

People would tell themselves they feel empty but why should they? Why should you feel empty when you tell the cashier at the grocery store you’re going somewhere new and they don’t tell you GOOD LUCK?

You know it doesn’t matter to them. I think. What if it does matter to them?

What if that cashier continues to think about you and wish you luck hours after the interaction? Or days? Or years? Was the interaction that significant? You won’t ever know.

Do you think about them still? Do you wish them luck?

So many of the situations you experience everyday are so mundane because people make them mundane. They never say what they actually think or actually feel because they don’t want to be remembered. Nobody wants to be the guy at the grocery store who told the cashier something that will make them think for years to come. Everyone wants to be a sheep.

What if instead of just simply saying GOOD LUCK, you asked them questions about their trip? What if you asked them real, genuine questions that you cared about? What if you showed authentic interest? Would they remember you?

EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE DIFFERENT, BUT NOBODY WANTS TO BE DIFFERENT.

Everyone is scared about what others will think in the current situation. Everyone says they want to be different from others but are scared of the scrutiny they will face if they act outside what is socially acceptable. The rules that have been “set” for society are rules that have been made up by the crowd. These aren’t rules. They are suggestions for how to fit in. They are suggestions for how to not be remembered.

If you think about it, you are a miniscule little speck on a small planet of 8 billion people in a giant galaxy full of other planets. And once you are gone, it will take about 200 years for people to almost completely forget you even existed, unless you do something significant.

YOUR IMPACT WILL BE INSIGNIFICANT UNLESS YOU MAKE IT SIGNIFICANT.

Naturally, literally by the law of nature, you make very little difference in the future of the planet. It is a little bleak, but it is the honest truth.

Significance is created by how you influence others.

Both my parents are teachers. They teach others during some of the most crucial, memorable times of their lives. They dictate the future of the future generations. Over the years, their influence has been spread to thousands of people, if not tens of thousands.

People come back to both of them years later and thank them for what they did. They give hugs and show them that what they did mattered.

I aspire to be like this.

So far, my influence is so small. I have been spending too long trying to fit in and be just like everyone else. I am insignificant.