By Tyler Doty
March 31 2014
When walking throughout the many halls of our school, I pass by hundreds of people every day, each different from the other. While sitting in the Commons one day, talking with friends and exchanging stories, my friends and I noticed a girl sitting alone across the other side of the lunch hall. She was eating quietly and didn’t pay much attention to the people around her. Most of us instantly jumped to conclusions about how she had dressed and how she was acting. I had sympathy, but didn’t do as much to help as I could have at first.
We quickly dismissed the whole topic and went about our business. I had noticed her later on during the week, in the library, in the halls, and in a class or while walking through the hallway. There was something off about her but I never cared much about the subject.
I’m a teacher’s aide for the librarians during fourth period, so I’m there helping out for a while every other day. I had seen her there a few times, and once I saw her checking out a book. I started some quick small talk with small questions here and there and could tell that she was a completely normal person who probably was not the loner my friends and I initially pinned her as. She was clever and funny and probably did have a lot of friends. I still couldn’t figure out why she was always alone, or why she was acting shy.
Later on, around a week after I spoke to her, I was told that her uncle had been diagnosed with a pretty serious disease. She was obviously very close with her uncle for her to be so out of sorts. The people I was with were instantly ashamed that they had made fun of her a few weeks before and their sympathy quickly kicked in.
This is a perfect example of how everyone is guilty of judging someone before knowing the slightest thing about them—it’s human nature. Everyone will probably make a remark about your clothes or your personality without knowing the story behind it. Daily life can be rough, and everyone has their own back story. When calling someone out on something, you should always stop to think about what exactly it is that you’re doing.
