The Day I Met Barbie

When we are born we enter the world completely naked – bare bottom nude – in your birth suit. We leave the same way. Without getting into specifics you may be clothed but at the end of the day you do disappear into the sky in your birthday suit.

We also start on an even playing field. Some may be born into a house of poverty and some may be born with a trust fund already setup. Some may have an absentee father or a mother who is battling a drug addiction nevertheless we all start our journey the exact same way.

I am not going to give you anything you haven’t heard before. “life is what you make of it” - “just be the best you can be” but I am going to give you a harsh reality lesson into being kind.

Kindness in the dictionary simply means - the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

With all the poverty, inhumane things that happen in the world why do people find this so difficult? It literally baffled me up until about 18 months ago when it hit me or should I say “she” hit me, well not physically as we all know I wouldn’t go down that easy but SHE came into my life and I have never been in the presence of a person like that before.

I have figured it out. Ready to be mind blown.

Egomaniacs make people unkind. It is that simple. People that think they are better and more deserving than you are. People that will lie, cheat and steal just to better themselves. People that are self-centered BUT they tell the world how caring and generous and lovely they are “when the camera is on”.

This person came to me in the form of pretty much a barbie want to be. She was complaining about how her size 8 figure was not small enough – how her eyelash extensions needed redoing and her fake nail had split. We were having a drink on a girl’s night surrounded by other women from a company meeting we were both at and I started to notice that we were all paying for rounds of drinks except her. She was also the only one ordering a cocktail each time as she mentioned to me when I asked her if maybe she didn’t like wine and her reply was “only the best for me” (clearly she hadn’t drank good wine before).

Anyway, on paying for my second round of drinks she pulled out the “company” debit card and placed it on the tray of drinks when it was delivered to our table and told us all to wait while she took a photo. You can totally see where this is going right…. Barbie then uploaded the photo to her business Facebook page with the caption “gotta love it when my commission pays for drinks for my friends”. Firstly we were not friends, secondly (imagine me head shaking as I do this with a finger out) “Ohhh no you didn’t”.

Egotistical Barbie had entered my life and it was at this point that I started to monitor human behaviour with her in mind. Now let me remind you of the definition of kindness - the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Barbie was the exact opposite of all THREE of those.

I did find out that Barbie also has daughters and I can only imagine how they will be raised. This is a continuing battle I have with my own children. “Mum why can’t I have this, Mum why can’t we do that”? If we do not teach our children to be courteous, caring and respectful and lead them by being exactly that ourselves then what hope do the generations to come have. It is simply a ripple effect and while Barbie may not see it now her first impression has left a permanent imprint in my brain of what NOT to be like and how utterly appalled, I am that people can treat other humans that way. I also saw Barbie that night try and sell a product/service to a drunk girl who was pretty much passed out on the floor of the bar so one can only assume that she is teaching this method of “do or die” to her own work team – again another ripple effect of unkind behaviour.

My point is can you see how that one interaction I had with an extremely unkind egomaniac has imprinted my brain. How many more have to come across people like this before we all start to actually stand up and say something? I do wish at the time I hadn’t laughed it off, I did know it was all sorts of wrong behaviour and I am ashamed that I didn’t say anything, but I feared being judged. Yes, you heard right 18 months ago I feared what people thought of me until I had time to process the Barbie situation and continued to watch her on social media platforms be this “other person”. It is kind of like watching a bipolar person, they are someone in person and someone completely different on camera letting the world see what they want them to see -the best version of themselves- an actress. This was a massive turning point in my study of human behaviour as it shows that Barbie actually knows who she “should” be seen like but for what ever reason still reverts back to being an egomaniac and unkind person when the cameras are off.

If everyone could just be there true self and remember that we are all born equal and not one of us is more deserving than the next of great success and happiness we can surely turn this ripple effect around.

Lauren Kropp

Be Your Strength

“You can’t put a price on a smile”