Life essay - Important lesson I learned in high-school

The one most important life lesson I have learned through my time in high school has

become part of what I consider my life-philosophy. It wasn’t something I learned or came to

realize all of a sudden, but something that came steadily throughout my adolescence.

2 years ago, when I moved to the United States, I was very shy and bashful. Being very

self-conscious about my accent and cultural barrier etc, I had a hard time engaging in

conversations and making friends even if I was very interested in doing so. The “lesson” I came

to learn was: If you approach and talk to someone who for some reason finds you weird and

doesn’t wanna talk to you, then they’re not a person you wanna associate with anyway and thus,

there’s nothing to feel sorry about. Literally nothing is to be feared from just being open with

everyone, no matter what your interests or views are. In the end, those few people who will meet

you openly and appreciate you, they are so much more worth than those who won’t. That’s

something I wish I understood when I started high school or even when I was in 7th grade and

was very kind of clingy to my own circle of friends.

It’s about putting yourself in others’ shoes and thinking: If I met someone, outgoing,

open about his/her interests, happy to talk to me... what kind of impression would that give me?

To me personally, I’d think great of this person and I believe that this is the case for most people

- or at least it should be. I know a few people who would see this person as obnoxious and even

attention craving and I think it comes down to their feeling that they themselves are

uninteresting; that if they went up and talked to someone they would be seen as weird, and in

return they dislike when others do so.

I wanna make a bold statement: Closed-mindedness is categorically the worst

characteristic anyone can have. It leads to all things bad in society; racism, prejudice,
homophobia and nationalism are all just rather extreme cases of closed-mindedness. “MY

country is the best because I live in it!”

“MY race is the best because MY family is this race!”

“Religious people are STUPID to assume that their god is real!”

- Close-minded People

Other minor issues some-what derive from close-mindedness, such as picky eating,

carelessness of the environment, lack of interest in news and lack of engagement in local and

national politics. If we as individuals and as a society don’t maintain a reasonable level of open-

mindedness and curiosity - and in return, appreciate and expect the same of other people - then

we’re doomed to live unfulfilling materialistic lives and die with no perspective of the beauty

and diversity that this world has to offer.

So just talk to people.