judgement/acceptance

This post today is inspired by MTV's new show, "If You Really Knew Me". I suggest you all check out the website and watch it every Tuesday at 10 PM Central.

Anyways.. the group in charge of the show is traveling to high schools and holding a "Challenge Day". The same group was also on Oprah a few years ago. But Challenge Day consists of intimate sessions where you learn about your classmates and get to express yourself and it's pretty deep and intense.

What I learned from the show is that you shouldn't judge people before you get to know them. Not only is it unfair, but you could also be missing out on a great person who could become your best friend, a lover, or just someone who has something in common with you.
It's also completely amazing how much tough stuff other people can go through, when you have no idea whatsoever. You may think someone has a perfect life.. but they may have had to walk down a bumpy road to get there. There are people who put on a pretty face every day, yet feel absolutely hideous inside. There are people who act a certain way just to be accepted by their peers.

I know we can't all get everyone to change like they did at the Challenge Day activities.. but we, ourselves, can make a change. We can learn more about people before we put a label on them. We can step in when our friends are giving others a hard time about their race, their friends, their activities, their looks, etc. Stop with the assumptions and generalizations.

You wouldn't want someone to judge you solely on your skin color or your friends or the rumors going around about you.

Give people a chance to get to know them. Ask the girl who sits behind you in math class how her weekend was, ask the person in front of you in the lunch line what their favorite food is. Not only is this giving you a chance to get to know this person a little better, but it's also fun! Not to mention you could end up meeting some great friends this way.