When I was growing up, I didn’t know all that much about the world. All I had to go off of was my own experiences, which didn’t add up to very worldly knowledge about all the different kinds of people. Most people don’t and can’t truly understand what it’s like to be someone else, unless they’ve personally been through the same things that the other person has gone through.
I’ve always considered my life to be pretty “normal”. I have an older sibling and younger siblings, I love reading, enjoy TV, am opposed to chores, like to play outside, and love playing with animals and children. I go out of state to visit relatives, my mother bakes a homemade cake on my birthday, and I play piano. I thought, growing up, that everyone got as exasperated with math as I did. I thought that everyone fell down, like I did, when there was nothing to trip over.
However, now that I’m older, I realize how much of my life is so different from other people’s. Not everyone dislikes math as much as I do, and some have grandparents or relatives that live in state. And, now, when I pay attention, it’s easy to see how contrasting everyone’s lives are. Take me and some of my closest friends for example. I usually get in bed around 9:30 every night, and I try to fall asleep by 10. Some of my friends, on the other hand, regularly stay up past midnight, and catch up on sleep in the afternoons when they get home from school. I wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and most of my friends would gladly sleep until noon if given the chance.
Because everyone’s lives are so different, it’s important for me to keep that in mind when I find myself judging another person, especially if I don’t know them that well. It’s impossible to know what another person might be dealing with or going through, and unless you do, it’s unfair to form biased opinions about them.
Everyone’s normal is relative. Chances are, your life differs dramatically from other people. I know that I can’t completely understand what other people’s lives are like, as I only truly understand my experiences. I don’t believe it’s fair to judge another person, even someone you know, until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. And not just his shoes, but maybe his pants and jacket as well. Because it’s hard to understand something if you only get pieces of it.
Hard as I might try, it will always be difficult for me to comprehend another person’s way of life that is outside my own. The best that I feel I can do is to keep an open mind, and remember that normal is relative.
“Reprinted from Hagel Publications, Inc. dba as Courier Newspapers”