There is a fine line between an opinion and a judgment.

Opinions are something that everyone is entitled to, something everyone should have. Having a different mindset than someone is a good thing because it starts conversations. It forces someone to step outside of their own thoughts and comfort zones and really see things from a new perspective. Not having an opinion is worse than having one that someone may not agree with. An opinion is your own personal thoughts that are based on your own personal experience.

However, judgments go beyond opinions. To pass a judgment is to attack a person’s character and morality based off of their own personal choices. “I don’t go out to parties because I would rather be a scholar than an alcoholic.” is not an opinion, nor is it a fact. “I’m not in a sorority because I don’t want to pay for my friends” is a judgment and a very inaccurate one at that.

I was raised by parents who taught me to keep an open mind on absolutely everything. When I was fighting with a former friend of mine, I texted my dad a long rant (in the middle of the day on a Wednesday, sorry dude) and his response was, word for word, “The worst thing a person can be in this world is judgmental. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about, be patient and be kind”, and that has really stuck with me.

I think opinions and respecting a person’s opinion when it is different from your own takes an incredible amount of patience. Do you really think it’s easy having a thing with a guy who owns seven different MAGA shirts when you are unapologetic liberal? Absolutely not, but you have to respect someone’s opinion, because they are emotionally-motivated thoughts, not proven facts.

I think that the world needs to be a little less quick to judge in every possible way. We all have our public lives and our private ones. I don’t advertise on all social medias that I struggle with anxiety and depression, but I do post a lot of pictures of my best friends and my sorority sisters, which are my two main sources of happiness. When I was a freshman, I used bottles to drown out any feelings of sadness that I experienced, and it cost me some friendships. The people that stick by me and continue to have my back are the ones that never judged, and I couldn’t be more grateful. To the world, I’m probably super annoying, “there’s that sorority girl who LOVES her sorority”, but they are girls who mean the world to me. My best friend and I bonded over a spoon in the cafeteria first semester and we are beyond obnoxious on every social media platform, but she is the best person that’s ever walked into my life, the person who kept me going on my absolute worst days.

I guess the point of this is, don’t ever be so sure that you know someone. Your opinion means one thing, but to pass a judgment is to fail to ever get to know who they really are. To insinuate that your opinion is in any way fact or more valuable than someone else's is to close yourself off to a world of opportunity.