Dear diary, I can’t believe…

Oh wait, this isn’t the same?

Well, please bear with me anyway…

There aren’t many things that irritate me, but of all of my pet peeves, placing limitations on another person’s potential (confining them to only our expectations) is of the worst.

So often, in our attempt to understand others, we cut them short. We want to know enough to make us secure in our relationships (or acquaintances), but we don’t want it to be difficult. So when the behavior of others confuses us, almost subconsciously, we place them into little containers.

This allows us to believe we already know everything about their actions. We assign them labels — mere adjectives, breaking them into smaller parts that we can understand. Then we fill in the gaps with whatever we have convinced ourselves makes sense — all without ever really getting to know the other person. But that’s not actually how it works, is it?

What if we took the time to really understand people? What if we threw out all of our assumptions and made real efforts to build lasting relationships?

Why is it that we like to box things up so clean and neatly?

We are people — humans who are so much more than containers in someone else’s mind.

Though we may be products of our environment and our experiences, we are not limited to that demographic. We are defined by how we choose to react, by what’s inside us.

We are not the words others use to label us. We are much more than those stereotypes.

We are so many things — so many contradictions. Happy, yet emotional. Awkward, yet graceful. Everyday something new, yet always the same.

Never try to fit someone into a box…. because so many parts will spill over. To place them there anyway, is to ignore the rest.

Life is messy. It doesn’t stow away neatly, but the mess is the best part.