McGill Magnetism, Why Is It So Potent?

Man, why me? ~ Tommy Oliver

Taken By Author

For generations, families have always had two things. One, a black sheep. And two, people that were unequivocally popular; whether they wanted to be or chose to be or not. See, that’s how it is with me and how it’s always been with the McGill family. I used to see people gathering around my father or even always hitting him up whether it was friends from high school or just next door neighbors.

The thing with popularity is that some people that are, don’t ask and while they are keen on not being in the spotlight, one thing has become evident, sometimes, you don’t choose the spotlight, it chooses you. Take the McGill family. Now, dating back to the days of my uncle, Melvin McGill, the days when he was a school teacher then principal; his descendants, his niece and nephews became legend.

Back when I was in middle school, when people heard the name, ‘McGill’, they stop and ask me, “do you know Melvin McGill?” To which I respond, yeah, that’s my uncle.

Even when people used to see me by myself, people from my father’s past would look at me and say, “are you Rodney McGill?” “Close enough, I’m his son.” I would counter.

Of course, being a spitting image of my dad made this also evident.

My dad was popular with the ladies as was/is his sons after him, but despite all of that, it’s not our ‘descendence’, for lack of a better word, from these great men that made future generations popular but more the personality aspect.

For example, McGills have always been popular with the people because of our easygoing personalities, people are drawn to us because of this.

For example, I’m one of the most easygoing people at my job. Back when I was in the dish pit, I never let the job get to me. I always had a smile and I always enjoyed doing my job and no matter what, I never let the stress of the job get to me.

As people got to know me and this underlying fact about me, they began to flock to me. Come up, talk to me, even going so far as complimenting me on my composure when shit hits the fan. It’s like one of my best friends told the bitch ex-manager once and I quote, “you know, Rodney has a lot of friends around here.”

Now, did I ask for these friends, no. But, they became that when they saw how I was treating them and how I was among one of those people or perhaps the only one who didn’t let service or the stress of get to them.

People have always been able to joke and kid around with me and I’ve always taken it in stride, if you’re on a job for however many hours, you’re going to become a target at some point.

While I don’t mind and again, I take it in stride, it’s gotten to a point where it has caused my popularity to grow to exponential levels. I mean, yeah, I act like a bit of pompous ass and I clown a little at work saying “I’m this, or I’m the x,y,z, of that.”

Naturally, this caused people to see that I wasn’t just some stuffy, devilishly handsome guy in a uniform. I am a person who give as well as take. Overtime, I’ve become the center of attention when it comes to getting picked on playfully. People have been telling me forever, “we only pick on you because we like you.” Okay, fine. Accepted.

For years, it’s always been like that and with some people, they show that “love” for you through their kidding around, I get that too. To this very day, it’s like that at work.

However, I’ve also been the type of person to never get pissed about playing around or even annoyed for that matter unless it’s something that hit me hard. From that point, if I ignore you, you messed up.

But I give myself time to stew, marinate, get my head right, before I make it like I’m trying to verbally take that person, who offended me, head off. I didn’t always used to let myself get picked on so much, but it was when I started my current job that I finally realized the truth behind what people used to and still tell me today.

However, it is because of this popularity with people that we McGills tend to be treated like we’re the be all, end all. Like, if you piss a McGill off, you better believe that you’re not only on the shit list, you will answer for it.

But what I don’t get is, that people tend to treat like this, like, our feelings carry more weight than an average person’s would.

An incident at work that happened recently really put this into perspective. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will say that someone got a little too comfortable following the crowd around him instead of taking the time to stop, think and check in; make sure he’s not saying anything I would get pissed about.

Well, to say the least, there was a dynamite blow up between me and this individual because he made a crack about something near and dear to me. I told him about himself and just made it my life’s work to not have anything else to do with him if I didn’t have to.

I don’t speak up much in the kitchen when people tend to go a little overboard with kidding around with me because I’m teaching myself to grow immunity to ridicule, it’s been a project in the making for the last 21 1/2 months I’ve been there.

My boss kids around with me all the time, and I him. Everyone in the kitchen that night learned a very valuable lesson about me, I draw a line when it comes to certain things from my background, the disabled for one.

Some people tend to think that falling out of my favor means that they’re going to be shunned in some way or turn the tide toward me, and it’s not like that. Will I keep you at a distance and limit my interaction with you as a result, yes definitely! Will I make it my life’s work to not have rapport with you, absolutely.

And also I want to take this time and make it known that this isn’t childishness in any form, this is how I deal with people I either don’t like or care nothing for especially when those same people have caused me great offense.

But you know, from what I’ve seen post the work incident and from past experiences, I’ve dealt with people who have said to me and I quote, “you’re one of my favorite people.” I didn’t think nothing of it at the time but after hearing and being told this numerous times, I began to understand why people said this to me.

In the past, I’ve also had people who felt, like this cat I mentioned, like they can come for me and me not respond or have a response and I guess that’s the drawback to having such an easygoing personality, people’s kids, they think can come for me, an adult, with their bullshit!

I’ve had this happen to me on the job twice in the past and I practically made those kids cry, two 18 year olds. I’m like, “damn, why me?”

Immediately after, I stopped having anything to do with those two people in question then when I went on about my merry way, staying out of theirs while going around them, they started feeling like my leaving them alone was unjust which it wasn’t.

And not long after, I got an apology from them and we 3 came together as friends. Okay, I want to take this time to make it known that we McGills, I, we’re not gods, we’re regular people who get mad, have bad days and whatever else. We’re not above it.

But I also notice that because of our magnetic personalities, people tend to put us on pedestals in the friendship department or the “people we love and love to fuck with” department. We didn’t ask, this is a way of life that we didn’t choose, it chose us.

Before I go on, I’m saying this from my personal experience and how I’ve seen this unfold before me. This isn’t me being arrogant or talking about a family legacy of sorts, I mean, it is and it is not.

In the personality area, we McGills take the trophy all day long because we’re just people who others are just drawn to. Yeah, we have our bad days and our days of being some of the most unfriendliest folks on Earth, but people never tend to take it seriously from us like they do others; we’re still at the top of the A list, I don’t know why, but I find it interesting all the same.

People mess with me at work because despite the negative connotation about how some black people act and tend to take certain things seriously or over the top seriously, people at work have come to know that I’m nothing like that.

I’m not mean to be mean or ugly or to be that way to make a point or assert my dominance, I’m not on any of that bullshit! And no matter what, I’m always going to be at the epicenter of people’s playful dealings, that’s fine, that’s the life I chose.

Even after that incident at work that night, it made me acknowledge a great truth about the McGill family and why we seem to be at the top of everyone’s list of “people we can’t live our lives without”. Again, I’m going off of a recent experience and life from years ago. Both significant.

My final take on this, we McGills are a friendly, easygoing and at times, a crude bunch but we’re not gods and we’re not deities of any kind. We’re regular people that, if you piss us off, you’ll get what’s coming to you but its not from us, it’s how we’re going to handle it and most times, we let karma handle it.

We maybe popular, but we’re also smart enough to stop rocking with people not worth our energy or those we deem such.

I’ll close out with this, the McGills never had a want for friends and company yet every time we turn around, it’s there, beckoning us not because we’re gods which we are not, but because we’re average people who get treated like we’re above average on top of how we treat people too. I guess its part of our McGill charm.

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