People Are People

I am discovering that people are the same everywhere. They like to nitpick about each other, but when it comes down to it, they're all the same. This one's not nice, this one's too nice, this one's obnoxious, this one's a pushover, this one's weak-willed, this one's brash...people try to blame these imperfections on some outside influence, but the real truth is, people are people. You can't blame something on the outside for the choices a person makes. Yes, things do influence you, but they don't make you behave in a certain way. That's you. And sometimes people are going to be mean, even if there is no real reason they should be. And sometimes people are going to be nice, when you would never expect them to be. People are surprising that way, but only because you expect them to behave differently. But why should you? You can never assume how a person is going to be. You can never expect. That's just playing up stereotypes.

The more we try to assign reasons for people's behaviors, the more we're forgetting that people are people and they all have the potential to be obnoxious or sweet or giving or selfish, etc. etc. etc. despite any of these expectations. The more we have such expectations, the more we'll be thrown off guard when someone behaves differently from how we expect. That's why it's good to go in with no assumptions. Wait and see. Let the person show you for herself. Let the person make her own name, regardless of anything you might know about her (or him).

People are not so different from one another as they might think.