Well, I pretty much failed at getting two blog posts out today... and I apologize. I have 4 finals going on this week and I thought I could squeeze in time in between studying to write up 2 blog posts. I didn't, but I figured half and hour late or so is better than nothing? Today's post is something that I've been thinking about for a while. It's asking why do we let what people think about us influence us?
This first started a couple weeks ago when I visited my Grandparents in California with my sister. We hadn't seen them since last summer and so there was a lot of catching up and talking to do. After a few hours of this, we all decided it was time for bed. As I walked by my grandparent's door on my way to bed I heard my grandma say, "They sure good young people." This really meant a lot to me because I realized, thats what I want people to think of me. Being cool, popular, or funny is all second to people thinking I'm genuinely good and nice. So I got thinking, what do people seem to want others to think?
The world will tell you many things. Society says, "To be cool you have to wear ____, do ______, say _____, and be _____." The only problem with this, as you can see, is the blanks. The blanks change; what is cool one day or one season sure isn't cool the next. Society for the most part is wrong and constantly changing its mind, so why do we waste time trying to chase something that never can be caught?
In my history class my teacher really focuses on the 'so what?' aspect of history. His main focus of the class is to show us the blunders and successes of previous peoples and times, and to learn from them. While thinking about this topic of following the crowd/ society we happened to be talking about ancient China and their famous foot-folding trend. When learning about this ancient activity, it was easy to think, "Why on earth would they do that? Didn't they know it would handicap them for life?" but then I realized that every society has something like that. Sure drugs, plastic surgery, and following the crowd is 'the thing' but how long will it take for us to look back and ask what the point of all of those things were? When will we realize that when we listen to others to fit in we are really just handicapping ourselves? When will we realize that nobody is perfect and that society has built impossible expectations?
Their is nothing worse in life then losing opportunity, hope, and potential. Jeff Whittier once said, "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'" I truly believe that as you study and work hard that you will have more opportunities come your way. But when you are lazy and choose not to do well in school and waste your time on unimportant things, you are closing the many doors of opportunity and narrowing your options.
To bring this tangent back to relevance, we need to realize that when we let people's opinions make our decisions for us, we are just handicapping ourselves. When we let other people tell us what is most important, we are losing our personal potential. Inside all of us is hidden talents and differences that make us who we are... but when we become 'just like everyone else' we all lose that special thing about ourselves. Why does society make us assimilate to what it wants? I wish we could all be ourselves and accept our differences rather than frown upon anything foreign to us.
In my first blog post I shared my belief that their is too much hatred and prejudice and not enough love and acceptance. I think that if the world could change this attitude, we could all be some much happier and feel the love. To God we are all His children and wants nothing but the best for us. So are we above God to not want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and love one another?
Lets love more, judge less, and be ourselves.
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