The
most important lesson I have ever learned is not to judge people. It is
much harder than it seems. Truthfully, this is a subject that I am still
working on.
There have been times when a friend has confided in me about a personal problem or issue. These friends may have been looking for advice or just needed someone to listen. Many times, I could not empathize with their situation because their experience was something that I had not personally dealt with in my own life. I wouldn’t necessarily make a judgment about them, but I felt that if I encountered the same situation in my life, I would draw from my past experiences and handle it quite differently.
Now here comes the hard part. When I actually encounter similar situations, I find that the right choice is not as easy to make as I had originally thought. It’s complicated. Many times, I have fallen into the same traps by making the exact same decisions that they had or my decisions brought worse outcomes.
You never know what people are going through or the struggles they are facing
in life. Even when you do share a common experience, no two experiences
are exactly the same. I remind myself that the friend that confided
in me in the past may be the same friend that I will need to seek advice from someday.
How I treat them in the past will certainly affect how inclined they are to
help me in the future.
“Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” Wow. That is so true. I try to treat the kids at the school I work at the way I would want my kids treated. They have their own battles to deal with and don't usually have the maturity to figure things out adults have. That one had an impact. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this a lot. My friends have had more than their fair share of hardships growing up, and someone has had to be there for them when no one else was.
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