Makes complete sense right? Well let me elaborate on this for a minute.
In the past, while entering new environments, I have always been quick to judge other people. Not verbally but certainly mentally. If I walked into a new classroom filled with people I don’t know I would certainly label each one. I’m not ashamed to admit it either, everyone does it but just really don’t think twice about it.
This semester I’m taking a class called Media, Society & Self-Identity. I chose it assuming it would be a simple ‘whats the affect the media has on society and the self’ type discussion. But it has only slightly touched on that. We are assigned four presentations for the semester and the second one was probably one of the hardest displays I have ever put on for classmates. The basic description was to go up and present to the class all of your insecurities. We had to talk about risk, security and our self-identity. The first day that I walked into that class I isolated myself immediately, embracing the fact that I was the only normal one.. Well, it turns out that I was completely wrong once I heard everyone else’s presentations a few weeks ago.
The person sitting next to me went through very tough times as a child and the person sitting in front of me was called a ‘cancer’ by his father. I shed some tears for the stories that I witnessed during these presentations and I have never felt so guilty for judging someone before. I sometimes preach to others that it’s rude to judge but I find myself taking part in the action way too often. The people you share your life with or even the people you choose not to, have the exact same unfortunate encounters that you do. Of course its hard to realize when ‘i’m different’, ‘i’m unique’, ‘no one is like me’ is pounded into the heads of the youth. Growing up we were always taught to never judge a book by its cover and to not judge someone unless you walked a mile in their shoes; these sayings live to be true. Please, be different and unique, but also be aware that humans were built the same and therefore just differ in their personalities.
Take my slap in the face as a lesson to think before you think. I shudder at the fact that I could so selfishly look at someone and plaster an invisible sign across their front, but I did. While starting my journey in exploring life and meeting new people, this is not the best way to have it happen. It’s crucial to have an open mind and an open heart in order to accept others or at least understand their past, present, future and even their personality. Properly place these thoughts in a part of your brain that will successfully put it to use every single day.
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” –Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird”