As a society, at some point we decided that it is perfectly acceptable for everyone to carry
around a list of things they hate about the people around them. This list can be made for any reason,
and requires no back up. You hate the way she bites her nails, or the way he pronounces “leg”? Totally
fine, because they hate the way you answer the phone (#yellow). We even came up with a clever name
for this list, pet peeves. This term comes from the word peevish, which means ornery or ill tempered.
The things on this list are the small habits that most people would view as mild annoyances, but enrage
the individual.
Is it possible that we use pet peeves as a way to avoid actually discussing real problems with the
people around us? Pet peeves are usually directed towards picking apart the small and typically
insignificant habits of the people around us. This quality dictates that they can and will most likely
change based on the people that you surround yourself with. For example when you are at home, you
may hate the way that your mom never comes out and says no, she disguises it as a maybe, but when
your with all your friends you hate the way one of your friends starts every single story with the same
line.
Not to mention the fact that there are no rules surrounding pet peeves. Some people’s pet
peeves are grammatical errors, as in all of them I now have to be concerned about every single thing
that I ever text, write, or say to you because you just told me that you hate all grammatical errors
equally. Not only do I have to focus on never doing one of them, I have to cleanse myself of all bad
grammar habits in order to save our friendship and avoid your wrath?
Unfortunately there isn’t anything that we can do. At this point pet peeves have been ingrained
in our societies and preached to our children. Pet peeves are just hateful lists that everyone is allowed
to carry around, and I hate how everyone sits around nit picking all the people around them, do I have a
reason for this? No, but luckily I don’t need one.