The person listening is of equal or greater importance than the person doing all the talking. Has someone ever asked you a question and when you were halfway through answering it, the questioner decided you weren’t important enough to listen to? That is a huge blow to our self esteem and self worth! This particular situation usually only occurs within teenage conversations. Other teens who are reaching out for help feel small and unimportant when we ask a question and don’t stop and listen to the answer. Everyone deserves to be heard.

I have a friend exactly like this. She’ll ask me a personal question that requires more than a six word answer and I’ll be so happy that someone actually cares enough to ask about me that I begin answering and not even halfway through the answer, I notice she’s talking to other people, doing other things, etc. Every once in a while, I confront her and ask her why she doesn’t pay attention and she automatically gets defensive and says “I am listening,”. But, most of the time I just stop in the middle of my sentence because I feel unimportant and awkward.

Think of how many people are reaching out and hurting inside and just need someone to talk to. What if we could be the ones to help ease some of their pain? It’s really not too hard of a task. It’s just taking a few minutes out of our day to just listen. That’s all. If we could all be there for one another, low self-esteem and other teen-related issues would practically disappear. Cutting, bulimia, anorexia, and teen-suicide are some of the teen issues I think would be non-existent if we would lift our peers up instead of tearing others down.

It also reflects well on us. It proves that we are ready and willing to be there for everyone and others will want to be like that and pass on the good deed. And others will be more willing to be there for us when we need help. Treat others how we want to be treated. Remember the good old golden rule? That still applies to us, no matter how old or how young we are, and it truly does make a difference in ourselves and others.

Let’s change the world one person at a time by simply listening and make it a more enjoyable and less depressing place to be!