Walking a mile in someone else's shoes

       Everyone you encounter is fighting a battle of their own. Strangers that you walk past on the street or in the mall have troubles that you don't know about. People tend to judge other people so easily. It's human nature, but in most cases when one walks a mile in another person's shoes, it can change the way they feel about that person and even sometimes the way they feel about themselves

       In many cases people don't realize the consequences of their decisions, but humans are humans and everyone makes mistakes. On page 68, Mrs. Boone said that Mr. Boone was normally a patient father to his autistic son, Christopher, and all he wanted was to have a good relationship with him. Mr. Boone made some wrong choices like when he lied to Christopher about Mrs. Boone's death and how he was responsible for killing Wellington. When Christopher finds out the truth, he automatically assumes his father is a horrible man and the he will eventually kill him just like he killed the dog. Mr. Boone then lost all of this son's trust. He never meant for that to happen and he definitely did not want to strain his relationship with his son, but Mr. Boone did not think about the choices he made and once he made them it was too late to take them back. Christopher slowly starts to see that his dad does really love him and that most of the things his dad did were for Christopher's own good. Most of the time we do not know how bad the outcome of our actions may be and we all make mistakes, nobody is perfect and sometimes we just need others to understand that.

        Many people, at one point in their life, have moments where they are a bystander, an opinion or a shoulder to cry on. However, there are times when their words, choices and advice impacts another person's situatuation deeply. Sometimes small things such as a gift or a favour may go out of control, and although the other party is primarily to blame, the giver may still feel the weight of the burden. Friar Lawrence gave Juliet a vile of poison beliving a few hours of sleep could do no harm. Little did he know, the vile would cause a chain of event leading the inevitable death of Romeo and Juliet. Many people, esecially those of us in highschool have or will have similar experiences. It can be hard to predict that the littlest of actions can cause the most harm. In the beginning of the play, Friar Lawrence was just another character in the play. He was just a priest, who was admittedly a little strange, that Romeo opened up to and trusted. Then in the play he does Romeo and Juliet a favour by marrying them without their parents consent, and an even bigger favour by helping Juliet play dead to get out of marrying another man.  He meant no harm when making these choices, but they had a severe effect on the outcome and each time he tried to fix the problems, it ended up damaging them more. Those mistakes made Friar Lawrence a much more relatable character than he was in the beginning of the play because many people most likely have gone through almost the same situation and can put themselves in his shoes. 

        It is so easy to judge other people and decide what we think about them before we even know them, but once you find out what is really going on in their lives, it is often better for you and for them. It is sometimes difficult not to judge people right away. There once was a girl that my friends would gossip about. I had never noticed what they said before, however I started to see the little things after they pointed them out. I began looking at her in a different light, but not in a good way. That girl had a tendency to flirt with almost every guy she met, sometimes disregarding the age difference, and soon became the center of many inside jokes within the group. One summer night we all got into a late night deep conversation and she shared with us all her troubles regarding school and friends. After hearing everything that she goes through, everyone finally understood her much more and felt very guilty of what we had been doing to her. We have learned to look past her excessive flirting and now she is one of my closest friends. Everyone is going through something in their lives, and it is in our nature to judge others, but if you learn more about them and try to put yourself in their position, it can really help you and your thoughts on them.

      Everyone has issues that we may or may not know about and sometimes those issues can affect that person's behaviour. It is very hard not to judge people, especially if they have wronged you in some way, but it is also good for us to remember that they are most likely going through problems of their own. Having problems does not give others an excuse to be rude because everyone has problems, but it can help us to take a step back put our emotions aside. Often walking a mile in someone else's shoes can change the way you feel about them or yourself and can slightly help you understand people.