Day #1: People Who Tell Me Who I Am and What To Do

Everyone knows what I’m talking about. There’s probably at least one person in your life with a holier-than-thou attitude and a desire to tell you how to improve your life. “Oh… you’re going to the public school…Did you really consider your other options?  You’d make such a good fit elsewhere.” Or, “Listen, I’m in a really successful relationship, and you and this girl would be perfect for each other!”  Has it occurred to you that I probably understand my situation better than you do? So I need to go to a private school? Is it unreasonable to believe that I’ve already spent a lot of time weighing my options and deciding what’s best for me? And I have to be with this girl? Thank you, I’ll take over my love life from here. These people interject their thoughts as to how I need to better myself constantly, and nearly always have no idea what they’re talking about. I honestly don’t care about what people want me to do in order to better fit the description of my life that they have planned out for me.

Another social aggravation of mine is the less subtle act of labeling. See that boy eating lunch with the girls? He’s probably gay. The kid sitting alone? He’s a socially awkward freak. The person reading a book during lunch? What a nerd. If you hold this viewpoint, prepare to be amazed. The boy sitting with the girls is one of the most charismatic (and least likely to be homosexual) people I know. The kid sitting alone is new to the school, and is one of my newest friends. The nerd reading a book during lunch is on the basketball team, and is probably going to win the Nobel Peace Prize someday. If you had just merely judged these actual people by first sight, you would never have gotten to know the really cool people that they actually are. I’ve been labeled as that kid who tells jokes and does stupid stuff. What happens when I don’t want to be funny, or act out? People often come up to me and ask if I’m depressed, because I’m not amusing them at the time. The truth is that I just want to take a break from being the person who I’m made out to be. Without the pressure of having to be BEN HEINTZ: FUNNY GUY, I can be BEN HEINTZ: MULTI-FACETED INDIVIDUAL. My friends and I have known each other for 8 years more or less, and if we all took the opportunity to wipe away preconceived stereotypes for one another, we can begin to see each other, and ourselves, for who we really are.