Hi everyone it’s Howie Defranco and today were going to talk about something very not important to me but important to my history, and a few things the world forgets sometimes. First thing I’m going to say is that the world is going to think and say whatever it wants to about you, sadly people do not all think the same about most issues. So they’re going to judge you a lot of people will judge you on everything about you, your past, your body, your skin, your intelligence, everything about you the world and a lot of its people think they have a right to judge. They don’t see what the true measure of a person really is often they look at your mistake, or something they think is and that’s it their mind is made up from that moment. We live in a world wrought with this kind of mentality which has improved do not mistake that, but people still judge. Some think it is fun, they gossip and laugh, some no it’s cruel and use it to hurt and some just make a joke not realizing what they said.
So now I’m going to tell you a bit of a story, so grab some popcorn and get a drink. I am the son of a guy who I could never call a man, in fact I call him sperm donor. I’ve never met him that I can remember and in fact he left my mother two weeks before I was born. He met me though, my mom called him and said your son was born you should at least come meet him, he basically showed up and said, ok I met him anything else. I wasn’t there so I don’t know the exact wording and I was 18 when my mother finally told me that part that he had met me. So her words were foggy to me as well. I’m telling you this because I judge myself for being his son a lot, my mother reminds me a lot how I look like him or even act like him in the moments when my mood is not at it’s best. I hate my father for leaving I do not because I wish he’d stayed even slightly but because I’m afraid I might turn into him someday. I’ve worked everyday of my life to disprove that and yet I’m still judged by people even people I’m closest too.
When I say I’ve worked I mean I’m there as much as I can be for everyone in my life, I worked hard in school up until I lost my drive for it and everyday I put 100% into my job. These things people judge me for, in high school, I never missed an assignment up until grade 12 and had straight A’s but people called me lazy because they never saw me doing any work, for that matter one person called me out as a cheat and that had to be disproved, which it was. I’ve probably in the last few years spent more money and time with my friends than I ever thought I would but I’ve had friends who say it’s not enough, they told me I’m not there for them because of the one time I would be unable to go see them or join them or help them. One of them I gave 300$ to so he could go see his girlfriend in the states a week later I chose not to join him in a dangerous situation he told me it was fine, not to go to and said I do not do enough for him because of it. I was a supervisor for all of 4 months before I left my old job and people I had worked with for years complained to other management for how I spoke to them after I was promoted. Apparently saying, “hey I have this person to cover you can you please go do your cleaning duty?” is rude and saying thank you after they were done didn’t help. People judge a person daily from something as simple as thinking they will respond to something in a certain way, or they can have pre-conceived assumptions about a person or any number of things.
If you want to measure yourself, on how good or strong of a person you are you have to ignore other people’s and even your own judgments and it is hard, because there’s 7 billion other people in this world. We still need friends, family, someone to love, to hold, to kiss, to miss, and because of this we do worry about what other people think. We let it get to us and dig it’s way into our brains. Then we go out into the world with our masks on pretending everything is alright. Be who you want to be not what people expect you to be and you might find that you still find all of what you want, it’s not a guarantee but why not risk it all to get it all. The measure of a person is who they chose to be and they’re actions to be that person not what everyone thinks.
-Howie
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