"Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn't the way they actually are." -John Green
This quote has been at the back of my mind recently as I go through the daily. Realising that I am, sometimes, at most, a fraud, or putting on a mask as you call it, I realise that perhaps what I see in people sometimes is only 10% of who they are. Most of the time, it's more than 10% of course. But you know, I could be witnessing them at their worst 10% that day, and I can't be all judgy based on that, right?
I was on the train yesterday, and there were these two boys chatting quite loudly just behind me. Not in the way that it was rude, but just loud enough that I couldn't ignore their conversation. They were talking about how loaded the children of David Beckham must be, and how some celebrities' marriages actually last so long... a lot about other people's lives. And true enough, celebrities are there, publicised, for us to critique and judge, but still, I couldn't help but think, 'perhaps you could focus on your lives more'. It wasn't in a mean way, but it just seemed a waste to spend your time thinking about others' lives.
They then went on to talk about the difference between Australian and Asian education... one of them had said that they were taught fractions by their dad at 7, and how he didn't even use it until Form 1... almost ridiculing the education here in a 'oh, I'm so smart way'. They made fun of kids who didn't know how to do fractions until Form 1, and so on and so on... for almost half the train ride. It bothered me, in a small way.
Of course, once I got off the train, the thought of their conversation was long gone... and perhaps, just perhaps, that conversation is only evidence of a small fraction of their personality. So I shouldn't judge their entire character based on forty minutes of conversation -- I certainly don't have the right -- but it reminds me how the words we put before others often have such an effect on people in the way they view us... even if those sentences we form are not completely, wholly in tune with our character.