Throughout your life, you have met and are going to meet countless of people, and there is absolutely no way you can please every single person setting foot in your path. How will you act if you are to find out there is somebody out there who hates you? For me, when I first encountered something like this, I felt like I was an absolute loser. I lost all of my confidence and was always nervous of everything I did. The feeling of being criticised, badmouthed, which was not just a feeling, haunted me for a considerably long time, to the extent that I actually thought of giving up and transfering to another school (yes this happened when I was young).

However, as time went by, I eventually figured out that I was completely wrong and pretty ashamed of how weak I had been. I was nervous, I was scared, and so what? It did not seem like they would pity me for that and somehow just un-hate me. In fact, seeing me like that was like a huge achievement for them. Trying to be friendly and stuff did not help, it was not like I felt delighted to talk with someone who hated me, I do not and cannot fake my emotions actually. Trying to change was complete nonsense because I did not know what to change, since like I mentioned before, they hate you for no specific reason. I realised that in that battle which they were the provokers, I already lost miserably just by accepting it.

I would say that it was a battle, but the thing is you can never gain victory. So what to do in the battle that you cannot win? The answer is simple enough, do not even start it. I came up with this entry unintentionally, during my getting-ready-to-have-a-nap and somehow the idea of nitrogen, oxygen and others in the air got into my mind. Just like how I state in the title, treat people who hate you like nitrogen.

What is nitrogen actually? For those who have not had the idea, nitrogen is a transparent gas and makes up about 78% of the air (according to what I found on the Internet, please correct me if I'm wrong). In normal condition, this is inert gas, which mean it does not form any reactions with any chemicals whatsoever. Along with oxygen and carbon dioxide and any other components of the air, it goes in and out of your body every second, every minute, every hour, every day, yet you can barely feel it.

So why do I compare haters with nitrogen? As you can see, they are everywhere around you. At first you do not know about their existence, but even when you actually know about it, it is just another piece of knowledge you gain. Even if you care about it, basically nitrogen is inert gas, which means it brings no help to you regardless of how much you desire it. Or if you cannot stand that fact, so what? It does not seem like you can prevent nitrogen from travelling in and out of your body everyday. No matter how you react, they are still there. You have every knowledge, yet you cannot get a hold of them.

In situations like this, the best way to sort things out is just as how your body deals with nitrogen itself: totally ignore it. Learn to turn a blind eye to your haters, that is how you not start a battle with them. It is a bad idea to think of a way to, you know, revenge or anything. By doing that, you give them just another reason to hate you, which allows the fact of hating you to be more sensible and logical, which means you also lose in this battle provoked by you yourself. Nitrogen is, again, transparent and inert, make your haters be just like that.

Instead of focusing on the nitrogen around you, why not turn to another side and look at the oxygen? By oxygen I mean your friends, your real friends you love you for who you are and also treat you like oxygen to their life. Biologically your body needs way more oxygen than nitrogen, and you need helpful advice out of good will from people who care about you way more than those badmouthings coming from those who seek criticism even about the way you breathe.

From now on, if anyone ever tells you that they, or somebody else, hate you, just ignore it. I get in this kind of situation not just once or twice, yes honestly it is not so pleasant to admit, you can say that I have gotten used to it. Although it still irritates me a bit everytime, I still have to accept the fact and move on. I cannot and should not allow it to make me stumble and slow me down. There is more nitrogen than oxygen in the air, but you and I can still live healthily and happily without breathing it in actually.