Allowing people into your life is a trusting exercise. Do you think it through? Do you ask them details about their life before furthering your contact with them? Or, do you just go with it and accept that they seem like nice people and move on with your relationship with them?
I don't know about you, but I have always seen the good in people. Even when they go out of their way to show me the bad, I am always searching for the good. Does that make someone naïve? Does that make someone an easy target for attack? It is hard to give a direct answer to those questions, especially when you ask yourself. Myself in particular has been asking these mind-boggling questions a lot over the passed couple days.
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I recently took a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, it was my graduation gift from my grandparents. It is absolutely stunning there and I enjoyed every part of my trip, except for this one part and it unfortunately involved someone stealing my iPhone. Now when I lost it, it could not have been 30 seconds between the time I took a picture with it, stuck it back in my back pocket, and tried reaching for it again.
I was at a club with my family when this incident took a very downward dip. Everyone at the club seemed so lovely, energetic, and fun. We all danced with each other, talked about our families and where we were from, really got to know each other. It was the exact cultural experience that I was searching for on this trip and of course I was loving getting to know all of the different people there because well you know, I always see the good. The club ran from 9-1 A.M. and around 11:30 my phone was no longer in my back pocket salsaing with me to the beat. Everyone in there seemed so nice. As soon as I screamed that my phone was missing and believe me, I screamed, they all took their flashlights out and were looking on the ground. It was no where to be found and after a little bit of thought the next day, I assumed whoever pick-pocketed my phone was probably someone I had met that very night.
So I called this person (my phone mind you) and they picked up. Of course at the time I was still seeing the good in this person and automatically thought they found my phone on the floor and they were answering to figure out where I was to return it. No. This person answered my phone and told me that if I gave them $100 that they would give me my phone back, I told them that it was my phone and they resorted to telling me that they did not care and that they found it. I talked to the security guard and he said to tell them I would give them the cash. These thieves told me that they would send someone to meet me and I ventured to tell them to bring my phone and we would exchange. They did not like that and hung up, and turned my phone off. These were no ordinary thieves, they had done this before and by that point had already left and downloaded all of my information onto another device, including my own number.
When I woke up the next morning I was a lot calmer than the night before and told myself that it was okay that they had my phone, I had shattered the screen at the airport anyways so it was no good to them and I would get a new one when I came home. But that day, my sister gets a text, my boyfriend gets a text, my friends start receiving messages, and all of my twitter followers get a disturbing post on their timeline from my account. They hacked my identity. They were posting as me, texting as me, messaging as me.
I could not and still cannot understand why someone who did not even know me had to take it as far as to hacking my life. They had my phone, they could wipe it and sell it. But no, they couldn't just let it at that, they had to entertain themselves. My phone had my late night writings, videos and pictures of the woman I held so dear to my heart that passed in April, messages from people that I had saved because they meant so much. I had not made an enemy of this person and still they wanted to tear my character down for some reason.
I do not have all of the answers as to who to trust. I also, am not saying that you should stop seeing the good in people, because even I won't stop there. But sometimes you find out who people truly are and sometimes you have to go through rough times to figure it out. Take it from the girl who's identity has been hacked, do not let people like them tear you down or stop you from being good to everyone you meet. Hold your ground and it is probably not a good idea to keep your cell phone in your back pocket, but do not let them ruin your most wonderful traits.
