ON THE FMYLIFE PHENOMENON

I was at Target on Sunday morning, buying supplies for a meeting. The scent of pretzels was in the air, and I stopped by the counter, considering how delicious a cinnamon-sugar pretzel would be for breakfast. The girl in front of me ordered breadsticks. The woman working said they didn't have any, and the girl left. As she did, she said "No breadsticks? Ugh! [Frick] my life!"

Now, I know how it feels to not get the food you've been craving. But...really? You need to say that because your life is THAT bad when you don't get Pizza Hut breadsticks from a Target on a Sunday morning (very close to noon)?

The phrase [Frick] My Life, heareafter abbreviated as FML, is popularized on the website fmylife.com, where people write in little stories about things that go wrong in their life. Some of the things are serious (infidelity) and some are...less serious (assuming someone is buying a Halloween costume when it's just their clothes). Most are amusing in the "other people are in pain" kind of way (which sounds callous when it's spelled out like that). I see the value in using this site as a coping mechanism, sharing the pain with other people could lessen it, I suppose. But when the expressions finds its way into everyday life, into real life, little question marks appear above my head.

I was a big proponent of swearing while I was in college, and now I am not. While I see the value in a few choice epithets (for example, when your team's running back fumbles inside the five yard-line...on two consecutive plays), I think for "life description" things need to be a little more serious than breadsticks not being at your beck and call. For example:

"Today, Nazis discovered my family hiding from them. All that's going to remain of my legacy will be a diary. FML."

I realize that all people have problems, and that comparing hardships is an exercise in futility, but I think if one is going to [frick] their own life, things need to be worse than a lack of breadsticks. For example, there could be no cinnamon-sugar pretzels ready.