Not sure what to title this so feel free to give some ideas, I appreciate every piece of feedback. This is something that happened at school today, and it made me very thoughtful. Despite how short or small the situation was, it felt a lot deeper once I made the connection. ———— So, today I was in mathematics with my group. It was the last class of the day, so it was pretty short. After the teacher finished her lesson, we just chatted. My friend, who we'll call F, is a social butterfly. She loves to chat, a *lot*. In this scenario, she was spinning in her chair while blabbering on about random things. (I honestly couldn’t tell what she was saying since she was RAPIDLY changing topics & speaking extremely fast). However, from the corner of my eye, I could see two girls whispering and laughing at her. This happens a lot, because my friend isn’t exactly favoured.. and usually I’d get a bit upset or annoyed.. but in this moment? I felt sad for them. Why? Because I can’t imagine how unfulfilling their lives are for laughing at someone who’s just having fun. I’ve seen their actions; looking at people weird, acting better than, laughing, etc. What made this so different from other scenarios was the angle. I could see both things happening at once, and the difference is huge. Picture this: Someone having the best time ever, while some people in the background are just snickering about that person. I genuinely admire how unapologetically-herself F is. It makes me envious, really.. and I think that’s part of the reason why the other girls laughed. I think they are robbing themselves of their own happiness by judging other people. It shows that they have unnecessary standards over people and how influenced they are by society. This doesn’t happen overnight; it comes from outside influence, whether it’s from friends, family, media, or literally anything else. I hope they find peace in themselves, and be able to be like F. To be so… "childlike", in a way. Let me elaborate on what I mean by "childlike". Don’t you notice how children are usually much less fearful than their elders? They will be themselves, ask questions with no hesitation, be honest. That's something we lose as we grow up and gradually care more and more about what people think. To add onto this, I just want to clarify that being child-ish and child-like is different. Childish behaviour, to me, is immature.. like refusing to admit or acknowledge that you’re wrong. Childlike, however, is something sweet. It’s like the joy you feel as a child.. the vibrancy, "innocence" and warmth that comes with being a child. Let me know if that makes sense.. it’s my understanding of it, so it could be wrong.. but that’s what I mean when I say childlike. Anyway! The moral of the story is; don’t care too much about what other people think (in harmless scenarios like this), they will judge anyway, and as long as you’re happy? That’s all that matters. Sincerely, rae.
