Learning about Others

Often, people do things to us that they don't realize. We've all done it, made some choices that affected another person adversely. I saw this today. A girl I know was talking to some friends and they were making decisions among themselves that were making her upset, and it worried me. Made me wonder if a) I do that to people and b) people do that to me but I refuse to let go. That worries me, and I know there are people that my friends think that I should give up one, but I believe that keeping them around is something that I am supposed to be doing.

Today I read a blog post written by a girl that used to be in my ward. She was on my activities committee so I had some interactions with her, but not too much. Then I learned she was in my sociology class and got to know her a little more. So I've been reading her blog posts as she has been posting them, and they all hinted at some dark past that was hard to deal with, and I didn't look further. Today I read her older blog posts. And I was stunned. She has gone through so much. She has struggled with self-esteem and eating disorder and self-harming. She reached a point where she didn't want to live anymore, and did something about it. But her family saved her. She fought, hard. And is to this day fighting.

Hello reality check. My problems could be a heck of a lot worse than they are. The saying is true that in order to understand you have to walk a mile in their shoes, and that is what I did today. These blog posts made me cry. I have so much respect for her and how far she has come. She is an amazing person, and I'm glad that I got to know her before she left for THAILAND!