more often than not, we tend to judge people based on the things we've heard about them. we, people, are addicted to passing unfair judgement towards others, and yet we complain that we ourselves are being subjected to such unfair treatment, even though we are doing the same to others.

until recently, i was one of those people who wouldn't go near smokers in general. in my mind, a smoker was a bad person who didn't care about causing discomfort to others, or killing themselves through a meaningless act of temporary luxury. solidified in my mind, was the feeling of disgust towards these people.

these feelings were probably planted in my head by my mother, who had no problems showing her disapproval towards smoking. whenever we would take a place in a coffee shop, my mother would instantly look for another place to sit, if there was a smoker in the vicinity. obviously i was influenced by this, and thus grew up with a strong prejudice towards these people.

my prejudice probably started to dissolve at the beginning of this year. sometime during form 3, my number of friends increased dramatically, due to my heavy involvement in multiple clubs. making these new connections meant that i now had a vast network of people whom i didn't really know coming into my life all at once. at first, my innocent self that was not exposed to anything even slightly out of line believed that all were the same as me ; non-rule breakers and all around goody two shoes.

i got to know all these people at the same time, and honestly i had the time of my life with most of them. as we all got closer, i realise that not all were the goody-goodies that i had initially thought. this sudden exposure to the other side of people shocked me for awhile, especially when it concerned smoking. i suddenly realised that all these people around me were smokers, nevermind whether they smoked shisha or cigarettes, they were smokers all the same.

i suddenly found myself caught between my prejudice and my friendships. and then it hit me, these things do not affect the value of their friendship. these things, cannot instantly classify them as 'bad people'. these habits, do not define what kind of person they are.

i suddenly realised, that i was passing unfair judgement towards people that i didn't know, instantly stereotyping them, without bothering to know their true story.


i guess this applies to everything else as well. oh well, that's all folks. (: