Staying optimistic

I pride myself on trying my hardest to take any person at face value the first time I meet them. I’m optimistic towards the human race: I believe that everybody has the capacity to be genuine when given the chance.

Nobody—even really bad people—are wholy evil or wholy unpleasant. Our personalities and lives can’t be put into 2 columns of good and evil. There’s several thousands of grey columns in the middle that change based on location, country, religion, ideals and norms.

A charity campaigner may secretly kills cats in their spare time, or a serial killer may secretly save cats in his spare time. Who would you prefer to talk to? Which person do you feel deserves more of your time?

I don’t have the right to discount anybody as somebody not worth my time without giving them any of mine. That’s why when I meet somebody for the first time all I do is try to stay optimistic, stay interested and stay pleasant. I’ve made some amazing friendships with unlikely people like that.

Life’s boring when we try to pre-screen based on past experiences, and I think as we get older we’re more and more at risk of doing that to new poeple. As we get older we judge new people we meet based on other people we’ve met, and nobody deserves that.

If we try to do that, all we end up is surrounded by people who validate our opinions and lifestyles and never question the way we do things. That really is the true definition of hell.