Run Away

"I don't think so, Lucy. I'm no longer marketable. The scandal will follow me, stick to me. No, if I took a job it would have to be as something obscure, like a ledger clerk, if they still have them, or a kennel attendant." "But if you want to put a stop to the scandal-mongering, shouldn't you be standing up for yourself? Doesn't gossip just multiply if you run away?"

This dialogue is from a novel by J.M. Coetzee titled Disgrace. The scandal that they are referring to is that the man has slept with one of his students (was a university professor) and the university wanted him to get counseling. He refused and decided to resign from his position and move out into the country with his daughter. I have about 90 pages left until I'm done with the book, so I will probably write my opinion on that later. Anyway...

The scandal portion of this isn't what sparked my interest in the quote. The park that did is the last question. I have known many people in my short life that have said they were going to pack up and leave because they wanted away from all of the 'drama'. Every time I had someone say this, I got really confused. I always wondered why they would rather leave everything that they know and try to start completely fresh versus just ignoring and cutting out the things in their lives that caused said drama. Chances are, if they ended up running away, the same problems that they were trying to run from would have just caught up with them in a few years and they would then have had to move again. It really would have been a vicious cycle. If they were really in a dramatic lifestyle, then they would have had the drama increase by them leaving. People would be talking about why they decided to leave, and with Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc, people would continue to talk about what they continued to post about their 'new' life. 

With the new age of social media, it just isn't possible to run away. Beside, running away is extremely selfish. No matter how bad it seems that your life is, there will be someone that misses you. In the long run, it's also much harder. Therefore, when things are going bad and just seem overly dramatic, you should confront what is making you unhappy or what is bad in your life. You should focus on making the necessary changes to become a better person for those around you and, more importantly, for yourself. I'd be willing to bet that there is at least one person that you can turn to for help in getting your life on a more positive track. Personally, I would prefer people talking about how awesome my life is versus them saying how unhappy I appear.