Dogged Determination

Stubborn: having or showing a dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so.

I am stubborn.

I remember a day when I was twelve years old. I went to the community park to celebrate the end of my softball season with my teammates. Unbeknownst to me, I had inadvertently offended a girl on the team. As a result, she convinced the entire softball team to ignore me against my knowledge. So, when I walked onto the volleyball court to join in the game they were playing, every girl walked away, leaving me completely, utterly alone.

Now, the point of the story isn’t to evoke empathy. That girl was a stone-cold bitch. I moved on. No, the point is to showcase that I have a very very stubborn mom.

After the incident, 14 years later, my mom still holds a grudge against that girl. If you wrong one of her daughters, you are damned to an eternity of fiery destruction in her eyes. I could give her a million and one reasons to move on, but she won’t. She will always dislike that girl. She’s stubborn. I never truly understood that…

Until I had a child of my own.

And, damn it, I’m stubborn too.

So, what is MY criteria for someone being damned to an eternity of fiery destruction? In what way do you have to wrong my child so that I wish upon you the most painful existence? What am I SO stubborn about, that if you do this, I will have dogged determination to NEVER change my opinion about you in spite of good reason?

Simple.

Don’t love my dog.

Don’t want his precious snuggles. Ignore his adorable eyes. Think that the way he is sitting is just “normal” and not the most darling thing you’ve ever seen in your entire existence on this planet of earth. Don’t want to excessively squeeze him to death. Shy away from his kisses. Tell me that I’m “obsessed” because I post him sleeping from three different angles with four different filters and six different Bitmoji reactions. Don’t stop everything you are doing to greet him during your daily walks or when you pass him by. Don’t tell me he’s the cutest dog you’ve ever seen and OH MY GOD he’s so well trained. Allow your small, impressionable child to be frightened of him because you are. Seriously, don’t do that…tell them to suck it up and pet the nice doggie. Don’t ask to see all of the 23043475935 pictures of him I have saved on my phone.

You might try to say, “Well, maybe they were viciously attacked by a dog as a child.” Or, “Maybe they’re allergic and will break out in deadly hives.”

No excuse.

If you don’t love my dog, I WILL hold a grudge.

And no, you won’t change my opinion.

I guess that’s why they call it “dogged” determination.