Dude Wrote a Whole Reddit Post About How He Hates His Girlfriend's "Zest for Life"

Sometimes, a Reddit "Am I the A-hole?" post makes you wonder how the two people even found themselves in a relationship to begin with. They seem so utterly different, so completely incompatible, that the main piece of advice you want to give them both is to run in the opposite direction of each other and never look back. 

This is one of those posts. A full-grown man came to Reddit to complain that his girlfriend...enjoys things. And expresses that enjoyment. He's "annoyed" by it. And he's tired of her general enthusiasm for life. Yes, really.

He writes that his girlfriend is a very "lively and energetic person" but that "her behavior is really annoying." "She wants me to share her joy for little meaningless things up to five times a day," he writes. "It's tiring." Oh, boo-hoo!

In case you thought he had an actual point, he then gives examples. They recently went on a hike, and "she was constantly admiring the nature," which offended him. She pointed out ducks that had babies and tall grass! She said, "Nature is healing my soul. Look at this panorama. Breathtaking."

Sounds like she was a normal person enjoying a hike and appreciating her surroundings. But he couldn't take it. "She made three or four comments about nature and it always included the imperative to look," Ebenezer Scrooge wrote. "But I just wanted to exercise and get the hike done as quick as possible." 

He continued, "I am so tired of looking. I don't want to give her that attention and the things she is pointing out don't make me happy. They mean nothing to me." He begged her stop asking him to admire things because he didn't want to. Obviously, she got upset, and they were quiet for the rest of the hike.

He wrote that he "didn't want to silence her," but... yes he did. That's exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to stop expressing her joy for the things around her, which, according to him, she only did three or four times on a whole hike. 

He thinks she misunderstood what he was getting at, so he came to Reddit, whose users promptly tore him to pieces. "OP just sounds miserable," one person wrote. "OP sounds like he just needs to find a kindred grumpy cat, instead of trying to turn his happy girlfriend into one."

"While as a fellow grump, I do see how this does not really interest you, this is who your girlfriend is. You're literally sucking the joy out of her, and not respecting her as a person very much. Frankly, it sounds like you're not a great match," another commenter concluded. 

I think they're probably right. He needs to understand that his girlfriend isn't doing anything wrong. It's acceptable to be excited about baby ducks and the other nature you come across on a hike. If he doesn't like it that much, he needs to remove himself from the relationship and find someone equally as miserable to date.

I do understand that some people are more enthusiastic about certain things than others, and that's natural to have in a relationship. My husband definitely wouldn't freak out as intensely as I would about baby ducks. But the point is he would let me. He would even probably find it endearing that I cared so much. 

Being in a relationship means not trying to stamp out your partner's personality in the areas where you are different. "My husband's quite the grump himself and I’m rather like the OP's gf," one person wrote. "He smiles and just enjoys watching me enjoy things." Exactly. 

If you really can't handle your partner's "zest for life," if it annoys you to the point where you try to extinguish it, that's your problem, dude, and you need to leave this poor woman alone. Plus, as one Twitter user asked incredulously, "What kind of a--hole doesn't feel pure joy when they see baby ducks?" Baby ducks are the cutest.