I am a firm believer in pinky promises. Something about entangling my pinky with someone else's for some reason convinces me they'll KEEP their promise. Sometimes a pinky promise holds its value and works. Other times, I'm left disappointed in its validity and success.
I'm also one of those people who DOESN'T make promises unless I can KEEP them. I know what it's like for people to break promises. I'm constantly reminded of the disappointment when you realize you don't know if you can ever fully trust someone. They DID break the pinky promise, you know.
I find myself forcing people into pinky promises. I like stability. I also have come to know what to expect from non-pinky promise. Maybe I'm still a five-year-old at heart who doesn't want to accept or believe that people could actually break their promises. Or maybe, I'm a twenty-one-year-old looking for someone to trust, someone who I know I can confide in and count on to be there for me.
Keeping promises is important in the continuation of happy and healthy relationships. Knowing you can trust someone is one of the key stepping stones to any relationship.
We spend so much time making promises we can't keep, which just ends up hurting our loved ones.
I take pinky promises seriously. If you pinky promise that you'll do something or won't tell a secret (etc.), you better keep it. I will remind you that you made a promise to me and that you didn't keep it. Every promise you make after that will be questioned. I will ask you, "Are you SURE you promise? You are not going to break it this time like last time?"
Think about this:
Would you like someone to promise you something and then fall back on that promise?
If you said, yes, I'm a bit worried. But if you said, no, you're probably in the majority.
A lot of social interactions depend on the trust you have in a person. There's not much in a relationship if trust is absent. If you can't trust someone, how are you supposed to feel comfortable being yourself around them? How are you going to be vulnerable, whether it be emotionally, mentally, or physically, around that person? How are you supposed to go to them about your issues if you fear they'll spread your secrets and personal life?
Simply put, the answer to all of these questions is, "you're not."
My advice is to keep your promises. If you ever have a promise and you're questioning whether to keep or not, think about how you'd feel if someone broke a promise with you.
Would you be irritated, upset, disappointed, or mad? Probably.
It doesn't matter how small the promise is. A promise is a promise.
At the end of the day, I need people I can count on. I need people who keep their promises: ESPECIALLY pinky promises.
I understand stuff comes up that may make it impossible to keep your promise. I get it, I do.
But please make yourself someone I can count on.
I don't take promises lightly.
Especially pinky promises.
