friends are cool, right? at least in your opinion. they could be total geeks, but if you get along great with geeks...then you think they're cool. chances are they think your cool, too. you've heard it before: "friendship is a two way road." well you know what happens on two way roads...car crashes, road kill, potholes, broke down cars, slow farm tractors, getting pulled over by the cops...bad things can happen. bare with me here, i promise i'm getting to what i believe to be a "cool point."
lately (mostly since i started this blog) i've noticed how good i feel when people actual make an effort to let me know that they support what i do by giving me words of affirmation. "hey tony, good job on that run." "wow tony...you look great." "tony, your blog is the best thing i've read since the Bible." "dude..tony...i want to be you." (ok..it's not quite like that, but you get what i'm saying.) and of course when someone would tell me i'm doing a good job or doing something cool before i'd always feel good, but lately it's been different. not sure why, but it has. maybe that's what changes when you turn 25?
all i'm saying is that it's awesome when someone who you may know well, or barely know at all, goes out of their way to say good job to you for something you're doing. i think to myself, "you didn't have to say that to me...why did you say that? you obviously actually mean it, right?" i believe the answer to be "yes" in majority of cases. if someone were to come up to you and say "good job" or "keep up the good work" and later you find out they were just being facetious you should slap them in the head (don't really do that, maybe the infamous stink eye will suffice.)
so go and support your troops. all of your friends and loved ones who are doing something that's worth a "good job" or an "attaboy" (i guess "attaperson" would be more p.c. these days) deserve to hear it! the coolest part about doing something good for someone else is the feeling you get from it. it's scientifically proven that chemicals are released in your body that give you a good feeling after doing something good. that's actually true...not just me being obnoxious. ask emily, she's a psychology major. maybe even a cooler thing than that (it's a tie between this and the first cool thing) is that the person who receives the verbal support will be more apt to tell someone else they know that they're doing a great job at something because they know how boss it felt to hear it from you. and then they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends, and they'll tell 10 friends......
also...you should still support our troops, too. you know..like, the soldiers. they are awesome and don't receive enough credit for what they do.
