Some People Don’t Like You and That’s Okay
How to accept the fact that no one is universally likable
Earlier this year, my boyfriend and I moved to a waterfront lot in the middle of nowhere, Nova Scotia. At first, it seemed like an ideal snapshot of rural charm: We shared a lane with just one other family, a couple and their year-old baby. Shortly after we moved in, they gave us a welcome gift of produce they’d grown themselves.
Over the next several months, though, a series of mishaps pushed our relationship with the father of the family into increasingly bumpy territory. Workers we hired used their driveway, tearing up a small patch of grass. Our neighbor tried to get into our house while we were out, to fix a problem with a shared well, forcing an awkward conversation about boundaries. And then there was the wooden fence he started building — one with wide-spaced posts that clearly weren’t meant to contain his toddler daughter.
Perhaps it’s to keep cows out, I suggested, scanning the flat horizon for troublesome livestock.
“Sarah,” my boyfriend said gently, “the fence isn’t for the kid or some cows. It’s because he doesn’t like us.”
It should have been obvious, given our recent shared history — but still, in the moment, the news landed like a punch to the gut. Didn’t like…
