I have just been shown, once again, that you shouldn't judge people too quickly. I just got out of a meeting with my public speaking teacher, whom I had considered a "not very nice person"(to put it mildly) since the beginning of class. During my little depression treatment thing, I missed two of her classes, and I missed giving one of my speeches. It was worth 200 points (A huge chunk of my grade) and when I went to talk to her, she told me that I should have contacted her to let her know I wasn't going to be there, thus she wasn't sure how/if I could make up the speech. And I was supposed to think about it, and she was going to think about it, and then we would meet again and make a decision. Well, ever since class began, I've seen her as a hard-ass who doesn't accept mistakes from anybody. She kinda gives off that vibe, plus the fact that the rules for the class are really strict (2 absences lowers your grade). Anyway, I went to talk to her, and she said that I could still give my speech, but just with 15% taken off due to the fact that I'm giving it 2 weeks late. Then she told me some of the things she would be looking for in the speech that the other people in the class forgot to do. Then, she didn't count my absences against me, and even took off a couple of my tardies. And as an even bigger shocker, she asked how I was doing, and what my treatment course is, and if I don't like my current therapist she knows one who is really really good, and she can refer me. Then she told me that I can go talk to her if I ever need help in anything, then wished me a good weekend.
That just blew my mind. She went from being my most despised teacher to one of the kindest ones I have over the course of 15 minutes. This is another example that I really shouldn't decide to dislike people. Because everytime I do, that person ends up doing something that shows they aren't so bad afterall, and then I feel really dumb afterwards. Like this Mexican guy at work. He was an ass, and then one day he was joking around with me and being nice. I mean, everybody has bad days, I guess. And sometimes I just get a really bad first impression of someone. Like my good friend Peter. I first met him when I was a Junior in highschool, and I thought he was an arrogant little bastard and I thought of him as a miniature Matt Uehling. But once I actually got to know him, I realized what an incredibly cool person he is, and now he's one of my best friends, and I have no idea how I'm going to get on next year when he goes to some far away state for college. Oh, and Peter, if you read this, please forgive my incredibly horrible misconseptions of you when you were a freshman. I was wrong. I admit it. Heck, even though, I thought Matt Uehling was a bastard, there were times when he was actually cool.
I am a pretty easy going guy, and there are actually very, very few people that I genuinely dislike. But everytime I decide that I don't like someone, I'm proven worng. Maybe I'm just not supposed to dislike anyone. Or, more likely, everyone has some good in them if you take the time to see it.
Eric 4/11/2003 10:20:00 AM
