Days of Our Lives

Days of Our Lives, if you do not know, is a daytime soap opera on NBC that began in 1965. It is essentially the only soap opera I know because that was the one my mom recorded and watched in the evening. Days of Our Lives was the soap opera I grew up with. Now this blog is not about Days of Our Lives, but it is about how sometimes your life or the people in your life could be straight out of a daytime soap. Obviously, you want to avoid recurring soaps in your life, but that being impossible, it is best to try to minimize them as much as possible.

Let us begin with the fact that soaps often have over-the-top acting. We all have those overdramatic people in our lives, who act as if the smallest thing is the end of the world. For example, (to use myself as an example) I lost my car key the other day, which of course is a big deal. However, I contacted my supervisor, emailed my entire floor, alerted gym personnel, called my brother, alerted the property management for the building, and left work early. Yes, all that. Really, it was not THAT serious (especially considering where I ended up finding the key). Point being you may be guilty of being overdramatic, or may even know people who often are. You may even know a person who takes a disagreement and allows it to end a friendship, or if you make one side comment against them you have become public enemy #1. Sometimes they even act as if a computer glitch could single-handedly end their life. It is never that serious.

Soaps also have the manipulators or fire-starters. You would not have the crazy love triangles, stolen babies, secret affairs, or backstabbing without these people. Fortunately, I cannot use myself as an example here, but there are quite a few people who definitely take part in the starting of drama. There are endless examples of this in my life, and I am sure it is the same for anyone reading this. Unfortunately, like in the soaps this backstabber, secret-telling, gossiping character always feels as if they are justified in their actions. "John did not love me back, so I had to destroy his relationship with her." Really B! Your reason for destroying a happy relationship is because you want one. You see it in the soaps all the time, and what a shame it happens in your own life too, or worse you think that anything gives you the right to destroy or hinder the happiness of others.

Soaps have recurring characters. Remember how Kristen died in a fatal car accident, but two years later she is back and turns out she faked her death because she was working for the CIA!!! Granted it may not go down like that in real life, BUT sometimes you lose people in life (either by choice or default). You may move on, you have completely forgotten about them, but then it is as if the Network wrote them into your life again. Wham! There they are again stirring up old feelings. This can sometimes be good for the storyline, sometimes bad, and sometimes it may call for the demise of another prominent character of the show, and by show/storyline I mean your life. In the same token, sometimes a character is recast, and this you should avoid. If there is a damn good reason someone is out of your life, and a completely different person enters doing the same thing or fitting into a similar storyline, do not let it play out like the soap. Do not allow negative people in your life to be recast with someone new. Recognize those warning signs early.

Finally, soaps always take place in one setting with the same damn group of people. Get out! Enjoy yourself, meet new people and go to new places. I know it's easy to wake up, go to work, go to the gym, come home drink tea and go to bed. On weekends hang out with the 6 friends you have at the local bar. Every now and then you should try a different bar. Guess what I did last weekend for the first time in years??? I actually went to a club...like a dance club. I enjoyed it, and even though I was drenched in sweat (part of the reason I stopped going to clubs in the first place) it was something new to do. And I met someone new doing it. Anyways just my opinion but keep the soaps on TV, same with reality TV, which are essentially soap operas with horrible actors.