just be kind.

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Judging other people by the way they look or what they wear is a big issue these days, and it seems to get addressed quite often, but appearance is not the only thing we judge in a person.  These past five weeks, i've been at a ballet intensive in North Carolina.  Naturally, after the first week, everyone makes friends with specific people and cliques begin to form.  Have you ever heard gossip about a stranger that made you not want to meet that person?  That happened a lot these past five weeks.  Most of the time, too, after having an actual conversation with that stranger, I would discover that they're an extremely cool person.  Eventually, I stopped listening to what other people would tell me and decided to discover for myself what someone is like.  
Well, apparently, other people judge me also.  I've never really been bullied before, but I feel like I just recently got a glimpse of what it's like.  
There's this "clique" here, who, for some unknown reason, did not like my friends and me at all.  They would whisper when we passed by and talk about us on social media without using our names.  The saddest part, though, is that i've never had an actual conversation with any of them.  I was terribly confused as to why they didn't like us, because, as far I know, I've done absolutely nothing to them.  Now I don't know, maybe this kind of stuff happens to you all the time, but this was total culture shock to me.  Why would you bad mouth someone you don't even know?  It doesn't make any sense.  
Today we had a heart-to-heart conversation with them and they apologized, but even so, it's hard to forgive.  I'm generally a likable person, so I'm really hurt and confused as to what they held against me.
I mainly wanted to share this with you because even though it's so easy to get caught up in the moment and start gossiping and pointing out other peoples flaws, just try to take a minute and remember that you're talking about a real person with real feelings.  You don't know everything about them and you don't know what all they've been through, so don't judge them; because whatever you say about them doesn't define who they are, it defines who you are.

"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." -John 7:24