Half way 'round the world lays the one thing that you want

Perspective is everything, don't you think.

Say you see a homeless guy on the street dressed in rags with nothing but a cart full of trash and junk from neighboring businesses. What would you think of him? A bum that's so hopped on alcohol and drugs that he can't put his life back together? A veteran that came back home to realized that everyone in his life has moved on without him and all he has left is his insanity? An abused man with disabilities and can't comprehend what has happened to him? A man paying the life of luxury for one lousy mistake? A beautiful man with knowledge you can't imagine and a heart filled with an abundance of love and compassion hidden beneath the filth and scum that hides his greatness from everyone that could use it.

Say you see a young teenage boy and girl sitting on a bench. The girl is crying her eyes out in his chest and he's comforting her with a look of worry on his face. What do you see? A young couple caught in the world of teenage pregnancy wondering what their next step is? The classic boy best friend caring for the one he loves, the girl hurting over the pain of some other boy? A couple experiencing relationship difficulties in their young love? A girl that has lost something meaningful and important to her finding comfort in someone she trusts? A pair of siblings experiencing a period of mourning for the loss of their parents in a recent drunk-driving incident, being the victims?

Say you see a mother and a daughter yelling at each other in the middle of the supermarket in the dairy aisle. What first comes to your mind? Simply the daughter likes whole milk while her self-conscious mother says she needs to watch her weight with 2%, or vice versa? The mother wanting to buy the cheaper yogurt, while the daughter needs another kind for a project? A mother watching her daughter grow up too quickly and finds comfort in the small kid-like antics her daughter throws. A daughter snapping over the realization that she can't live life the way she is, with her drunken mother. A rebellious teenage daughter that simply is throwing her usual fits, although stereotype is...she really wouldn't be with her mother at the supermarket, would she?

Stereotypes are never really true.

More than half the "jocks" in the world aren't literally stupid, they maintain their GPA to play right? They smart enough to work and study hard for their grade, or pull off cheating and copying homework without getting caught.

Half the "geeks" in the world aren't geniuses. They're just more socially challenged than other people. It doesn't mean you'll get every answer right just because you copied their homework, without them knowing of course.

Everyone wears black. You don't have to be emo, gothic, or so I've heard lesbian.

You gotta love that fact that people aren't truly how they seem to be.

Just 'cause a person is nice to you, doesn't mean their nice in general. A man with a woman captive in his basement could be the man that you say thank you to every day because he works hard and smiles and says hello when he delivers your mail.

Just 'cause a person is mean to you, doesn't mean their mean in general. A woman who gives you attitude at a retail-store after 8 hours of working could be tired from the working at the soup kitchen until past midnight the previous night.

Oddly, we know every single statement that I've made but it's still not going to affect our daily lives.

I'm still going to walk by the homeless guy sitting on the corner. I'm still going to think that young boyfriend made his girlfriend cry. I'm still going to think that the angsty teenage girl is yelling at her poor mother for no reason.

I'll still consider the other half of the jocks in the world incompetent. I'll still copy the homework off people that I consider "geniuses". I'll still stare at the young girl dressed in all pure black.

I'll still call the nice person to me, nice, and the mean person to me, mean.

Why is that, I might ask?

I don't know. Some people change, maybe we all can. Change our perspective on life. Change our perspective to become optimistic and shy away from being pessimistic. Change our perspective to become more open instead of tightly closed. Change our perspective so that we don't see if from our limited point of view, but from the many situations that affect everyone every day. I find that close to impossible. Nothing is ever impossible.