Did you get your flu shot?

To me, one of the most dreaded questions is….”Did you get your flu shot?”
I don’t like needles, I don’t like vaccines (and no, I am not ignorant enough to believe that vaccinations cause autism), I’m a little stubborn and think because I am young and take care of myself I’m exempt from the flu…
Anyway, any time someone asks me that question I always say ‘yes’ or ‘I’m getting it for free at work next week.’ Or some other bullshit answer because when you say no to the flu shot you are automatically judged so hard….

So my question is, why? Why do we care what people think if I get the flu shot or not? It’s my life, it’s my choice, it’s no ones business. If someone doesn’t want to be part of my life because they don’t agree with my decision about the flu shot then fuck them.

Ok, so maybe asking if I got the flu shot isn’t the worst question but it’s representative of all the questions that people ask us and we feel the need to make our answers better than the truth even though the truth is our truth and our decision. Do you want kids? Do you want to get married? How many times a week do you drink?

I say we do not owe anyone answers and we especially do not owe anyone explanations. For the longest time I didn’t want kids (not even sure if I really do). When I was dating my ex, people would ask, “how many kids do you think you will have?” And then when I responded with “I don’t think I want kids” you would’ve thought that I just revealed my secret identity of Lord Voldemort. But why does it matter?

Having kids are great. Not have kids are great. It’s my fucking life and my god damn choice. No one else. So then I became self conscious and would lie and say, well it depends on what mine and my husbands financial capabilities are and timing and blah blah blah a bunch of other bullshit excuses to skirt around answering the question with the truth. My truth. Me not wanting to have kids is not going to impact your ability to have kids unless you are my husband and want kids….future hubby will be the only one I’ll care about explaining myself to.

With that, last year I decided that 2017 was going to be my year of challenges. Doing all the things that I feared (that will be another blog conversation). But, this year I decided is my year of honesty.

“Do you want to come out to the bar on Tuesday night?” “No.” “Why?” “Because I’m tired and don’t want to.

“
Do you want kids?

Did you get your flu shot?

And all the other annoyingly prying questions that people ask that are none of their god damn business.
And who knows maybe I’ll even grow enough courage to tell people how I feel about things before they even ask.

But for now, one flu shot at a time.

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