A while ago I read this book called "All the bright places" by Jennifer Niven (one of my favorite authors by the way - if you don't know her, definitely check her books out!). Overall I absolutely adored the book but one particular thing sticks in my mind up until this day, nearly one and a half years later. Finch, one of the protagonists of the novel, has a bipolar disorder yet her refuses to go to a therapist to get it checked and have his mental illness be official. Why? He is afraid of treated differently by others. By that, he means that people will avoid him because he has a mental illness or they will think of him as insane because of his particular disorder.

And that really resonated within me.

You see, there are all sorts of stereotypes in our society. It's even more plainly visible if you take a look at a school, a grade, or even more specifically a class. There are the cool ones, the popular ones, the quiet ones, the weird ones and so on.

I myself would probably be one of the quiet ones; I do not participate that much in class and I enjoy spending my time at home rather than going out (well, actually, this also has to do with me being an introvert but that's another discussion).

As you see, it's pretty easy to decide to break down a person into one fraction and say that is their whole being. But it's dangerous I think. (the following example in this case is me, just because I know myself best and rather shy away from judging others too much)

I personally am of course quiet and more what you'd call shy in class due to past experiences that I already explained many times on here. I do not deny that this is a part of who I am as a person. However, oftentimes people take that small tiny fraction of my life and project it onto my whole persona. And sometimes it truly frustrates me as I think this treatment is very unfair. Sometimes I feel like everyone purposefully ignores the fact that I am very open-minded to new people and most of the time approach strangers more easily than you think. I'm also someone who makes friends pretty fast and I do talk a TON. Just not in this particular situation most people meet me in.

Yes, of course I cannot expect of e.g. teachers to know more about me than my behavior in class. Nevertheless, what I am able to expect is people appreciating that this is not my whole being, that there is more to me than what's on the surface.

I can apply that to other people, too. The popular ones aren't always just cool and easy-going, sometimes they, too, have deep thoughts and are actually very smart, the weird ones might be showing themselves off this way to only attract the right people, to easily see who truly matters. It's just not something visible at the first glance. But sadly most people fail to look closer and let their prejudices stop themselves from truly great experiences and different insights.

What I want to say with this I guess is that my wish for the future is that everyone tries being a little more empathetic. Showing others that yes, there might be stereotypes but I won't generalize you to that. (maybe this would also add to diminishing the stigma around mental illnesses for example, as people would maybe be more open and honest with their own if they knew others would not judge them for it).

Be a little more empathetic. That's all the world needs sometimes. Help others find a life of their own.

xxx Sarah