Maggie Winterfeldt Clark of The Editorialite learned an unexpected lesson when she was unfriended on Facebook
I’ve been unfriended on Facebook. The sting is sharper than I expected. Here’s how I knew it happened…
I was browsing through my timeline the other day, as I often do to procrastinate first thing in the morning, when I came upon a friend’s picture from the weekend. In it, a group of smiling faces gathered around an outdoor grill. While I had only met most of the people in the group once or twice, two of them I knew and was Facebook friends with—or so I thought.
“I haven’t seen anything about her in at least a year. I wonder how she’s doing,” I said to myself as I looked at one of the two. I clicked on her name and was taken to a limited profile; mutual friends, profile picture only, “hm, that’s strange. She must’ve instated strict privacy settings,” I thought, still not getting it. “I wonder if she became a school teacher or a CIA agent.”
Then, I saw it; a looming +1 next to a hovering rectangle asking me if I wanted to “Add friend.” My heart skipped a beat as the realization hit: I’ve been unfriended.
Since quitting my job last November I have been hitting the side hustle – hard. One of my most lucrative undertakings has been serving as a dog sitter for DogVacay.com. The site matches dogs and their owners with people in their neighborhood who are willing to offer their services as sitters and walkers. For someone like me who would love to own a dogbut realistically knows she’s not ready for that kind of commitment, it’s great. It’s like being the aunt- you get all of the fun of watching a dog without the long term cost and responsibility of owning one.
When I started dog sitting it was purely with the aim of making money. Six dogs later, dog sitting has delivered a surprising and unexpected reward. My days of dog sitting have actually taught me lessons on how to live a happier life. It might sound crazy but it’s true.
As you head into your weekend, consider these three lessons and how you can apply them to your own soon to be happier life!
We look up to women who have changed the world in different ways, but many girls will say that her mom changed her world in the most lasting way. A gift on Mother’s Day is such a small token compared to everything the mothers in our lives have done for us. In honor of these fearless women, we’re recounting the important lessons we’ve learned growing up.
The guy who comes up from behind and starts dancing without warning. The guy who thinks a sexist comment or an insult is a great conversation opener. The guy who thinks that making eye contact with you means he’s your boyfriend. We’ve all experienced our fair share of creeps at the bars. That said, during a passionate conversation with a friend of a friend, I found myself defending the general population of guys at bars. After all, my guy friends—most of whom are nice, respectable and respectful gentlemen—go to bars, and I would bet that yours do too. They’re not all creeps! Once you change your perception and open your eyes, you may surprise yourself at what’s right in front of you. Here is a guide to bar etiquette. Turning down a date does not have to be insulting; in fact, if you do it right you may even impress another eligible date nearby.
A friend and I were talking about people’s different thresholds of “busy.” She has a full-time office job and teaches fitness classes 3 to 4 days a week. A colleague of mine has a full-time job, teaches an extracurricular class once a week, oh, and has a husband and four kids to care for. I attest my own desire to fill my days to my early training in elementary school. My mom had my sisters and me in after-school activities galore—from ballet to swimming, speed reading (an excuse for me to spend more time at the library) to student council. Once I left school for the real world, I felt the need to continue being “involved”… I became my high school alumni association’s class representative, joined my sorority’s alumni chapter and took on a leadership role, then found other ways to use my marketing knowledge by joining my sister’s company’s team part time and decided to get back into writing by launching The Single Diaries with Jen.
The only sure thing is that we have 24 hours in a day and, when you have an inflexible office job, you have to wake up at a certain time every morning. For someone like me who can stay up all night, it is a challenge to stay committed to a bedtime when I can find other things I want to do but didn’t have time to earlier in the day (write or edit a post, read a book, watch Melrose Place). There were evenings when after work I thought I could do it all: run off to an early barre class, stop by a book club meeting, then finish editing a post scheduled to go up the next day. Other days I had to make sacrifices. Instead of organizing a boozy brunch (one of my favorite pastimes), I committed to a Saturday work session at a local cafe.
Jen recently wrote about taking up a side hustle, which is great in the years after college when making money needs to be your priority to pay for student loans and to get your feet off the ground. In those years, most of us need to work a traditional full-time job to learn the value of a paycheck and to garner experience to build our resume. A side hustle is a way for you to find your passion and develop the skills you need to make your dreams a reality. But what happens when your full-time job and your side hustle leave you with little to no free time?
