I Am Just a Person!

Sometimes my friends treat me like... God? Is that blasphemous to say? No, I think I need to explain myself.

One night my first-year college roommate came home completely wasted. I mean, completely. Although she was out drinking nearly every weekend, this was way beyond her level of normal. My suite-mates came to me and told me that I should basically hide somewhere till she's in bed because she doesn't want to see me. "She feels soooo guilty, and she can't handle you seeing her like this."

And in my head I'm thinking, "She should feel guilty. She's an idiot. But what do I have to do with it? Why should I have to hide out?" What am I? God walking the Garden of Eden after the Fall? Since when is being a self-righteous jerk equivalent to being the voice of morality in someone else's life? Don't people know better than that? This reaction--people being nervous around me when they know they're doing something wrong--is weird? hilarious? to me.*

It's your life. I have opinions about it. Tough opinions that can really get under your skin. But, please, I'm not God. I'm not the voice of morality in your life. I am not your Jiminy Cricket. I am not your mother. I am not your teacher! I am your peer. I am a person. A deeply flawed person. Walking the same difficult path you are. You think I'm tough on you when you're wrong? You should live in my head! You have it easy out there!

Just because I'm bossy, and I like to speak eloquently and with authority on matters I know nothing about does not mean you should treat me like Someone Who Knows! I'm not gonna call down fire from heaven to consume you just because I think you're making a mistake. Thirty more years or so, if I'm wearing sackcloth and living in the desert, yeah, please, fear for your life.

*Is it a gift? Am I looking at this all wrong?