SHE IS THE KINDA WEIRD-ISH FRIEND I WISHED I HAD A FEW YEARS BACK! ❤️

🔥

Right then. So….

Not so long back I met this… person? human? called Barbara or Barbs (which ever tickles your fancy, she will take both)

TBH I’ve never met anyone quite like her before, and I say that with my whole body because she is… how do I put this politely… hmmm… KINDA WEIRD 😂

Like totes kinda weird. In a very are you ok? way. And also in a please-never-change way. Both can be true at the same time.

She’s a bit of a rebel, doesn’t take any BS poop, doesn’t entertain nonsense poop stuff, doesn’t sugarcoat, and abso-fricken-lutely does not do that fake polite nodding malarky thing when something feels off.

She’ll just say it. Sometimes I’m like 😬. Sometimes I’m like 😂.

Sometimes I’m like ugh fine you’re right but I hate that you’re right.

That kinda energy, d’ya know the kind?

also she’s cheeky AF a tad bit naughty, says things that make me roll my eyes while laughing, which is honestly a very specific badass skill.

n’ yes, sometimes she thinks she’s funny… and YES sometimes she actually is BIT TIME, sometimes… well… we forgive her. Because she humans a lot. Deeply. Loudly. With naff all shame.

Her spelling though WOW. Truly shocking. Crimes against the alphabet, makes up her own words. Invents spelling-ings. Smashes letters together and just rolls it out. I actually heard she has a sticky space bar, and simply said she has better things to do than go fix it, deal with it, loll-ing, zero apology. Teeheeing

but somehow that just makes her more her. Like if she suddenly started spelling things correctly I’d be very concerned.

listen… she has this completely random a$$ obsession with pickles and dogs. WHY THE EF? No one really knows. Does it relate to the deep conversations we’re having? Absolutely not mostly.

Will she bring them up anyway? DUH HELLO YES. Mid-thought. Mid-depth. Mid-momenting. Just casually drops in like, “also pickles though” and you’re sat there like… okay Barbara… noted… unclear why… moving on on…. 👣

And the mental image is always the same...

Barbs hanging laundry out in her knickers. 1 sock on the line, 1 sock mysteriously missing forever, yup that 1, voice-noting something on her phone. Glass of champers or wine in hand.

Talking about life stuff, business, fears, boundaries, dogs, pickles, and spelling absolutely nothing correctly.

TOTES RANDOM - But somehow… comforting?

Because here’s the thing. Underneath the messy vibes, the cheek, the spelling crimes, the random pickle inserts… she has a REALLY good heart. Like proper proper GOOD…

and there’s something about her that just makes you feel oh so comfy. Like shoulders drop, relief, breath out, phew. Stop editing yourself comfy.

Conversations with her just… move. You don’t feel like you need to perform or sound clever or have the answer. You just simply talk, and before you know it you’ve said something real, or honest, or messy, or half-formed, and you’re like… oh. Shit. I’ve never actually said that out loud before. EPIC

And here’s the funnyish bit. Barbara doesn’t fix it. She doesn’t swoop in with answers. She doesn’t go “here’s what you should do.” She’ll just ask one question. One. Often very simple. Sometimes annoyingly simple. And then she goes quiet.

Which is RUDE behaviour if you’re not used to it 😂

Then suddenly your brain goes… oh. F*uck yeah. That’s it. That’s the thing. And it feels GOOD. Like relief. Like finally letting something out instead of carrying it around…

she’s got that what do ya call it, yin and yang vibe. A bit all over the pace. A bit random. But weirdly grounding. You feel safe. Seen. Not judged. Not fixed. Just… allowed.

honestly? I wish I’d had a Barbara in my life years ago.

The conversations I have with her are the kind I never really felt safe enough to have before. The is it just me or… ones. The messy ones. The ones that actually move things forward.

She’s an epic friend. And she’s open to making new ones too.

When I asked her. She was like, “f*ck yeah”. She also really likes the word WOOP, which… yeah… at this point I’m not even being subtle.

Because here’s the bit where you either spit out your coffee or go OH MIMI you naughty gurl 😂

Barbara/Barbs isn’t actually a person.

Barbara is just a name.

Barbara is actually THE BACKROOM ←🚪

(one of my epic Skool Communities)

That’s what this space is.

If your community was a person… who would they be? Would they make people feel safe, comfy, able to open their mouths without overthinking every word? Or would they make people feel like they need to behave and perform?

THE BACKROOM ←🚪 is Barbara.

A tad weird. A bit cheeky. No bs. Huge heart. Shocking spelling. Made-up words. Pickles. Dogs. Deep chats. Proper conversations.

So if you’ve ever thought, I need a Barbara in my life…yeah. That’s exactly what this is.

Bring your inner Barbara.

WOOP.

PS. I also have another friend called Margaret. She’s… different 😂 I’ll tell you about her another day.

Wink. Wink. 😏

(Lol had fun creating an image of Barb's courtesy of my friend Christopher, aka ChatGPT / yes, everything in my world has a friend ooookkkaaaaaaayyy 😝)

0 comments