3 Things to Know About People

‘People’ are those that you are referring to when you scream, “I hate people” when someone cuts you off during rush hour traffic. Sure, they can’t actually hear you shout, but you feel a little better afterwards anyway. They also fall into the category of anyone who is not your mother, and range all the way to that horrible dentist that you had last year.

Said ‘people’ are also the infamous ‘they’ and ‘everyone’.

You know what they say

Ugh, everyone is staring

You get the point.

So now we know who people are, but what do we know about them?

1. People are surprising -

A random example: sometimes strangers on the internet can prove to be more supportive than people you actually know. This is something I have noticed blogging, but is not necessarily as bad as it sounds.

This gives me more hope that people other than my family and professors “like” my writing. Nothing is worse than that same awkward and in genuine, “Oh...I love it...” like you give people at Christmas.

2. People are simple -

As humans, our basic desires aside from food and not dropping our phones, are to love and to be loved. This means that even the smallest gestures of kindness are more deeply appreciated than you probably thought.

A simple, “I hope you have a nice day” message to a friend can go a long way. Unless of course, you send it to the wrong person, in which case you just made the next few days of seeing them considerably awkward.

2. People are inherently good -

You probably just scoffed and thought,

“But my barista this morning accidentally gave me decaf! How can that be inherently good? It was decaf!!!”  Bear with me for a second.

Every story ever created is built by the actions of a protagonist and an antagonist, and you are the protagonist of your own story. All actions by the people around you are generally assumed to be intentional, like the rush hour speed racer mentioned earlier. Jerk.

But what if you were said speed racer? Then it wouldn’t be an act of evil, but an accident.

Everyone is their own protagonist, so choose to read someone else’s story to see the good written into the world.

So there you have it folks. You now know the basics of ‘people’. I apologize for the traumatic commuting flashbacks, it was a necessary evil.

But by learning about others, we learn more about ourselves. So the next time that you pronounce someone the Joker to your Batman, remember these things and you will quickly realize that you classify as “people” to everyone else.

So I suppose people aren’t that bad after all.