They say you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover; but we all do it anyway. All the people we see there is a quick, snap judgement. Whether it’s “they must be tired,” “wow, he looks like d-bag,” “she has major RBF,” or “they’ve got to be weird.” Without realizing necessarily, we judge people within seconds on their level of trustworthiness, their rank in class, their intelligence level, their cleanliness, and even their level of dominance. I am one of these people that are quick to judge, I admit it and I am sorry. No one should judge based on first impressions, but we do, that’s how this world works sadly. I mean, yeah there are sometimes where your judgements may be correct, but that doesn’t make it okay.

Some of my closest friends I judged too quickly; I didn’t even give them a chance, at first, I refused to befriend them. Then eventually things changed, fate happened, and now I am great friends with them. That’s the thing about judgement, you may not be right, but that doesn’t persuade your initial first feelings about this person. One person in particular, I avoided for as long as possible, because I believed my quick judgements were true. I believed this person was a jerk, just based on my first impression, I did everything I could to avoid this individual. Then one day I was sat next to this person and without thinking about how ridiculous my judgements were, I was annoyed by the fact I was next to them. They then began talking to me, which annoyed me even more, all they did was ask questions about me personally, and I was annoyed. It wasn’t until I noticed this person was really listening and taking into account what I was saying, that I realized they might not be so bad after all. The next day we sat next to each other again, along with the next. Thus began our friendship. I realize now how ridiculous and absurd I was acting towards this person. My snap judgements restrained me from actually getting to know them. Now, I’m not saying to sit next to everyone you judge in order to see if your assumptions are correct. All I am saying is, if the time comes, give them the time of day before letting your judgements get in the way, because they could end up being one of your greatest friends.

I’m not trying to stop the world from making judgements, because it’s a norm to do so. Asking individuals to stop judging, is like asking someone to stop blinking; it’s a reflex we all have, it’s not a good one, but it can’t be stopped. All I can ask is to take a chance and get to know these people, even if you absolutely despise them at first; because whether you like it or not, you may end up sitting next to them.