Guinea Pig Fun Facts!!!!!

(Cubone by Jacob Gunter)

Thought about changing up my blog to a guinea pig fun fact page! I sure do love my guinea pigs and I have learned a lot about them over these past few months. There is some pretty interesting facts about guinea pigs and I thought I would share them with you all! I hope you enjoy it!

Guinea Pig Fun Fact #1: As of 2019, Sweden has made it illegal for the sale of single guinea pigs. What does that mean? If you were in the market for a guinea pig, you better be looking for two. Guinea pigs are very social creatures that make them being able to interact with other pigs! They need connection amongst their own kinda and being left alone in a cage can lead to them feeling lonely and sad :(. I really can relate to these little pigs at times. Even though a single guinea pig can interact with kids and family members in their forever home, but honestly we all need to be around our own type of person. Sometimes when I am at work, sitting in meetings, I feel that I am not with my own kind at times. Don't get me wrong I love my job and I can relate to my co-workers, but with every job comes a certain sense of professionalism. Think of it as in old plays when the same actor had to play a different role, they would put on a mask. Perhaps we all put on a mask when we step into different stages in our lives, such as work, family, friends, community events, concerts, and the overall public. The problem comes when we begin to wear that mask longer on than off in our everyday life. Many people put on a mask to please others that people begin to like the mask more rather than the person wearing it. I believe identity is such a fragile concept that people tend to not take as seriously as they should. Wearing a mask that does not fit who we truly are can lead to the question of "Who am I to myself" and "Who am I to others". In social media today, we pick and choose what we want people to see us at our personal best. Think of social media as more as a social resume. We depict ourselves and our lives in a way that draws appeal to who we are. We find the best picture, we find the best status, and we share the best parts of our lives. We eat this all up and make sure that we are receiving the attention of likes, shares, hearts, and retweets. This isn't always a bad thing. We all like to have attention on us and through social media we can craft what we want. Our identity through social media is molded into what we want people to see. The problem arises is when the affection and connection we receive are only through our phone, tablet, and computer screen.

What makes people human is the experiences that shape them for the better and for the worse. We always have a push and pull towards what we see in life. Most of us will fall in love just as we will have our heartbroken. Most of us will pursue a dream or passion just as we will experience failure. Most of us will witness the birth of a child just as we will experience the death of a loved one. We go through all these different experiences that make us to who we are. I am loving because I was loved. I am cautious because I was deceived. I can be hurtful because I felt misery. I can overcome trials because I have resilience. This is the problem of social media. We only truly see only half the picture of who people are rather than their full identity. We only get to see the good stuff because it's not shameful. I understand why we are this way. I don't want people to know my vices. Social media appears to be just another mask. Just as the one we put on at work, school, or to others. The problem with masks is that they are not apart of us and that they can crack, break, and fall off.

What happens when we begin to see people that are behind their masks or personas? Well behind the mask comes from either within the person deciding to take off the mask or the mask is taken off them by force. Let's start with the former. When I began dating my wife, she didn't know all my mistakes. Talk about a weird first date if I just said, "Hi, I'm Jacob. Here is all my baggage". Over time we built trust with each other and thus we were able to take off our masks and see our true selves the bad and the good in us. I love my wife and this experience is what makes us so close to each other. I hope other relationships, family, and friendships can have this same experience. I do believe that sometimes people keep the mask on with their significant other because they are afraid of what will happen if they saw their true selves. Now onto the latter. I believe when we become desperate we begin to slowly begin to lose this mask and began to embrace ourselves, or at least the bad parts of it. With COVID-19 happening right now, my place of work has been more tense than usual. People are becoming more ugly with each other and overall we seem to be miserable. This is rightfully so with many places being close, loss of business, and the constant fear of the pandemic. I believe we are beginning to see the more nasty sides of each. Perhaps we are hearing people's thoughts now that perhaps would have been behind closed teeth if we did not have this extra strength. This all sounds bad. That people are being more blunt and rude towards each other as they are being knocked down notches on the Maslow Hierarchy of needs. This is where I saw that this is just a hard time and that we will be back to normal, but honestly, I don't think this is such a bad thing.

I believe someone needs to be told that what they did is wrong. I believe someone needs to be told to try harder. I believe we need to be more real with our feelings. I want to be told that someone doesn't like me and I want to know every reason why. This provides an open conversation and that everyone is aware of a problem. A problem that would have not been brought to light if everyone was still wearing their mask. If I do something that other people find unpleasant and they told me that this was unpleasant, I may consider stopping doing that particular thing. I would have never known it was a problem if they were too considerate to tell me in the first place. Telling someone how you feel is always a double edge sword in the long run. I always believe that being considerate is important when someone is willing to tell you that they have a problem. If a co-worker thinks my music is too loud, I will turn it down because I want to be considerate of others. Now if someone tells me that I need to cool off when I am angry, I may not be as considerate because I feel that my anger is not being validated, even though its probably over something stupid. I believe we can be honest and harsh at times as long as it is coming from a place of improvement. You don't want your friend to do drugs because they may get hurt/addicted. You don't want your child to play in the street so they don't get hit by a car. You're not stopping them because you want them to suffer, you are stopping them to prevent suffering. Sometimes, we need to be a harsh person because this can be beneficial to the ones we love.

This leads to my final question. Who are you? Are you who you or are you the mask you are wearing? I'm not saying take off your mask and be your genuine self every day. We wear masks to be considerate of others and that is a good thing but if we begin to be too considerate for others, then our identity will become skewed and you're looking in the mirror wondering who is looking back at you. I want you to take a minute and really consider what makes someone's identity. Even consider people that spread this "be your true self" mentality and wonder if they are being genuine. I think we are all unique and that we will have good and bad experiences and that is okay. Just like the guinea pigs in Sweden, just never go through it alone.

Well I hope enjoyed the guinea pig fun facts! Be sure to check by the blog again for more crazy wacky guinea pig fun!