Awesome People: The toad woman of Caribou

Self-importance is a wonderful thing. Ever since we were kids, we’ve been inundated with feel-good mantras like “Everyone is special,” “We’re all winners” and the ever popular “Stop struggling, Alex. Even though your brother is clearly the one who grabbed you and put a knife to your throat.”

Ahem.

But of course there are problems with all this praise. Tons of articles debate the effect constant praise and positive reinforcement has on children. Declined interest, lowered ambition to share ideas with others, dependent thought habits— the list goes on and on. Psychologists dish out id, ego and superego attacks and parents who always know what’s best for their children fire back with, well, just that. It’s a vicious argument and one that’s actually pretty interesting to investigate whether you have kids of your own or not.

But no matter how staunchly you believe that too much praise can hurt or enhance a child’s psychological wellbeing, there will always be people in this world who immediately make you question your stance. These individuals fall into two categories—

1.    The person in question desperately needed more hugs and “good jobs” when they were a child, the lack of which has transformed them into a bitter, crotchety shell of a human being.

Or-

2.    The person in question was flooded with hugs and praise and star dust and ponies and nougat and rainbows and delicious caramels and Care Bear souls when they were a child, the overabundance of which has transformed them into a creature that is more likely to see an image of Jesus Christ when they look in a mirror than their actual self.

This is a tale of the latter.

Awesome People: The woman who cried "Fuck"

Sometimes, I love people. Like, really, really love them. There are so many different things a person can do to make my day it almost borders on ridiculous. Yes, there are the occasional genuine acts of kindness that make my heart grow three sizes and sure, the intact innocence of a child who has yet to be unapologetically beaten down by the world can make me all bubbly. But those saccharine examples are as boring. It’s when the more random and unique side of society rears its ugly head that one must take that moment of lemon-ness and squeeze the shit out of it, transforming what could’ve been an uncomfortable occurrence into delicious human lemonade. The real-life examples you'll find in this series serve as undeniable evidence as to why some folks in the world are simply Awesome People.
 
I sit at a desk all day. Totally unique, I know. However, my legs are approximately the length of an adult anaconda making the experience of having them sardine-canned for hours on end quite uncomfortable. Because of this, I usually take the opportunity of my lunch break to free my lower limbs from their prison, strolling through downtown Minneapolis. Usually these are benign experiences. But every so often, the gods of awesome people shine their blessings upon me and deliver unto this world a break from the norm.

Enter impossibly and hilariously angry woman.