You don't know me

Dear Blog Diary,

Change can be a scary thing. Naturally it should be considering as you change, you’re constantly in a state of never being in that position before. You may project your past experiences onto the new environment and act accordingly, but really all you’re doing is limiting the experience. It’s nearly impossible to break this cycle though because logically what’s the point of gaining experience only to neglect it.

It’s not that I promote being naive. I think for myself it’s important to realize I am most likely the dumbest person in the room. Too often I think I have things figured out simply coming from the position of sensibility.

I suppose it’s like they say, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”

In this case if I had to guess anything, I would say it’s important to know that you don’t know basically anything about anyone. You’ve never suffered what they have or been blown away by the things they have seen. You didn’t grow up in their neighborhoods more than likely. Try taking the most monumental thing you’ve ever gone through, something that left such a profound impact on you, and then realize that no one else went through that but you. Maybe your best friend or relative stuck by you the entire time and empathized every step. It was still you who had to bear the weight of that experience every second.

Now take the memory of that experience and realize that every single person has had one of those in their own way, circumstance, and time. Do not compare. Some might laugh at your experience and you might laugh at someone else’s, but know that for everyone, the experience was incredibly profound for them.

When you take into account that you don’t truly know anyone and their lives have been as heavy as yours, it becomes monumentally easier to introduce yourself. It’s like Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.”

Cheers,

Eric