Now this is a rhetorical question, but have you ever developed a prejudice against someone because of their first initial remarks towards you, the way they look or act around other people, or any other factor? I am ashamed to say it, but I know that I have.

I hate it when I do it and it turns out that the person I had been prejudiced against was not that way at all. Kind of like in Pride and Prejudice (for those of you who know me, you know that it’s like, my FAVORITE movie ever), when Elizabeth forms a prejudice against Darcy based on his initial treatment of her, only to fall in love with him later. Oh, the irony. But it’s that same thing. Because someone has not been the perfect gentleman/gentlewoman to us, we extrapolate all these conclusions about them (some of which may be entirely true!), being unfair to both them and ourselves.

I did this with a girl from my theater class. She had been treating me pretty badly for the weeks that I’ve been there, so badly that I formed all these conclusions about her. I even jumped to the point where I thought she just completely hated me, plain and simple, for no other reason than the fact that I existed. But then something weird happened today.

She was nice to me.

SHOCKER! But really, it kind of was when it happened. See, on Fridays, the teacher is ♫amazingg♫ and let’s us do what is called “relaxation” where she teaches us how to let go of our thoughts so that we can perform perfectly on stage. Usually what happens, though, is that we all fall asleep. Cool thing is, she lets us sleep, even turns out the lights and turns on some soft music for us. Again, ♫AMAZINGG♫! But I guess she (the teacher) had told everybody that it was time to get up and, being the deep sleeper that I am, I didn’t hear her, so I was just kind of laying there on the carpet snoozing away while everyone else was getting up and putting their things away.

Anywho, the girl (let’s call her Mary for sake of privacy) came up to me and very gently shook me awake, saying, “Kristin, it’s time to wake up”. Imagine my surprise when I open my eyes to find that this soft voice belonged to a girl who had been kind of mean to me for two weeks. When she saw I was awake, she smiled and turned away. Strange.

It had happened earlier, too, when we went to go lay down to relax (aka sleep). There are these couches spread throughout the room, and usually a lucky few get to relax (sleep) in them. Mary had already claimed one, but she offered the spot to me. For me, in my opinion, it was completely out of character for her. I had formed such a prejudice that such an action by her was inconceivable to me.

I think that I just wanted to warn all ya’ll against making the same sort of prejudices. It is REALLY easy to do, but it may come back to bite you, and the person may surprise you.