Perspectives

Like normal people my age, it is common for us to take one look at someone and judge them based on what we see, not what we know. You can assume someone is weird. You can assume anything about anyone, anywhere. In middle school, I lost them. My grandparents. One in 6th, one in 7th. It was like the strongest person in the world kept throwing punches at me. They understood me like no other. But my peers didn’t, my teachers didn’t. Nobody noticed how emotional and sensitive I was getting. They took one look at me and thought. I was careless. I was weird. To them, I was just the ‘quiet, weird kid.’ The one who didn’t try. Maybe thought I was lazy. Laughed at me when I wouldn’t talk when spoken to. But none of them knew, I was carrying more than my backpack. A new year started, 8th grade. I thought the bullying would get worse, thought everyone would keep assuming i'm different. But this year, there were teachers who understood. Slowly, my confidence shifted. It wasn’t overnight, and it wasn’t easy. But step by step, piece by piece. I started to rebuild. The old me, the new, old me. Focused on my school work, talked to a few of my peers. I was picking up the fragments and putting myself back together. I was me again, but stronger. I still have ways to go. I’m still not very confident. I still am shy. But I am smarter. I am wiser. The phrase ‘never judge a book by its cover’ is common. But you never truly understand what that means until you experience being judged by your cover. So never judge by your first perspective of a person. If you get to know someone, they might be one of the most pure people you will ever meet.