[FREE] The Other Side

Today, my mom made me go to a seminar about overcoming fears and boundaries. Surprisingly, it was alot more fun than I could have imagined. We went over topics that everyone encounters throughout life and we also did quite a few activities that demonstrated how we all have a choice. Anyways, my experience today made me realize that most of us are afraid about what other people think about us. But what we don't realize is that so many people are too concerned about how others see them to judge us. We also don't realize how quickly we judge others because we don't always know the other side of the story.

Picture this.

You are on your way to this party that you've been waiting all week for, and your friends call you and ask you to pick up as many cookies as possible because they ran out at the party. They're all waiting for you to get there with the cookies, so you race over to the store on your way to the party. When you get to the store, you're unfamiliar with the aisles and don't know where anything is. You see an employee and you ask her, "can you help me find some cookies? I need some for this party that I'm going to." and she responds with "Find your own cookies. I don't have time for this." Now you're thinking 'How rude! All I asked for was for some help finding cookies!'

BUT

What if this same scenario plays out once again, and this time you over hear a conversation between a couple other employees that goes like this:
"I can't believe she showed up for work today."
"I know. The doctors just diagnosed her daughter with cancer. How is she ever going to be able to pay for the treatment with this job?"
It makes you think again doesn't it?

This was only one of the activities that we did today during the seminar, and I feel like this one really hit home. Most of the time, when someone is rude or mean to us, we ask why they want to be like that to us. The world doesn't revolve around a single person, and we never know the full story. There may very well be a reason behind the actions of a person. We all have a choice about who we want to be and how we want to see life. This seminar helped me realize that there's always another side to the story. We may not know this other story, but it's always going to be there. The past is history, the future is a mystery, and today is a gift; that is why it's called the present. I think that the present is here for us to choose how we want to see life each and every day. I really feel like I learned alot about getting past the boundary of selfishness. There's alot more that I want to say about what else I got out of the seminar, but it's getting late and I'm exhausted. More on this later...