Black tight jeans, ripped up to the thigh, stringed across their pale skin in zigzags.
A black shirt droops off their shoulders, hanging limply around their frame.
Raven black hair seems to have no particular direction in which it should go.
Red marks line up across their wrist.
They tread slowly down the sidewalk in the middle of the night, iPod in, blasting 8 Days of Hell by And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.
Yeah… I don’t know the band either.
Now, if you were to take one guess on the personality of this human being what would it be?
Depressed? Emo? Maybe even suicidal?
But hey, don’t judge them so quickly, because I will bet you … well nothing because:
1.
I’m broke
2.
I don’t believe in the following statement
that on the inside this person is a joyful little dumpling.

Every day of our lives we judge others. We judge them by the way they dress and act, and it causes us to make conclusions of a person’s character. This helps us know automatically a little bit about a person we have just met but, since a young age we have been taught to not judge a person on how they look and act, just like how we should not judge the quality and greatness of a books text by its cover. Sure, maybe that person may have more of a story to who and how they are but, their personality is shown by their appearance. Therefore … I’m calling crap.

In a recent study at the University of Kansas, it has been found that you can tell 90% -yes that’s 90 out of 100 percent- of a person’s characteristics just by looking at their shoes. “…People could correctly guess a strangers age, gender, and general personality by looking at their shoes” (What Your Shoes Say about You, Alexandra Sifferlin).

Every morning after I wake up and take a shower I straighten my curly hair. Then I put on my makeup and pick out a shirt, and after that I pick out some jeans and maybe add a touch of jewelry to the outfit. Finally after ALL of that I pick my shoes out. The LEAST important part of my outfit and just from a glance at my TOMS or my Bear Paws or maybe even my favorite beaten polka dot Converse you could tell what kind of person I am.

If looking at that small portion of a person can get you that much- remember 90%- correct information, why can’t we judge a person’s whole. We wouldn’t be inaccurate. There is nothing wrong with judging a person if you are right about them. Jesus… judging a person could even safe your life.

Okay, it’s late at night… umm… let’s say 9:30pm and you’re walking your silly little doggy Fluffy (yes, I do believe it is a fantastic name for a dog). You know, just walking along the sidewalk with Fluffy when you spot a man. A tall man, very built, wearing a hoodie, his hands resting in his pocket. Nothing too suspicious other than him being alone this late but hey, so are you. So you continue walking, getting closer and closer to this stranger when he stops. He stops and looks up at you. No not just looking, focusing in on you. Grinning. His hand started slowly pulling out of his pocket, holding something.

PAUSE! If by this point in story time you thought to yourself, I would’ve run away, congrats, you are still alive. If you did not think that at all I would just like to ask you, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Do you always walk up to complete psychopaths at dark and think, Hmm… I should really get to know this person, they could be lovely company.
Granted maybe you are right but, there is always the possibility you could be wrong and well… bad things could happen.
I know, I know. I probably sound like a big jerk right now. And you’re right; I don’t know that person at all so I should not have been so scared just to walk past them. “No one is perfect. They have their own flaws and you have your own. We are who we are” .
I’m sorry but, if someone else’s “flaws” that they show could possibly save my life then I will judge them by it.
It is biologically programmed in us to judge others for survival purposes. “When people were nomadic, we constantly had to survey and judge to process whether things were safe or not. Although we no longer live out in the wild that trait has followed us” .
As soon as we see new bodies walking amongst our own we automatically evaluate these people. We decide whether they are safe or not, or if you really want to be around this person. We make conclusions about them and what kind of person they are. That’s how we choose our friends, who we marry, or just in general anyone we want to be around. We judge people all of the time.
For all of those people who still think it’s wrong for people to judge or you don’t want to be judged yourself, I have a tip. Stop dying your hair every color of the rainbow and piercing your dimples. Stop sagging your pants or wearing neon tutu’s out to the mall. How about you just stop expressing yourself at all? That means facial expressions too. You shouldn’t smile or frown or cry or laugh. How about we all just sit inside our rooms, naked with no facial expressions at all? We can all be alone for the rest of our lives.
Good idea, huh?
If you want to be able to express yourself, you’re going to have to go out and except that you will be judged. Just as the Earth revolves around the sun, it will just happen. People will judge and so will you and you just can’t stop that. Not only that but people will continue being who they are, no matter how strange, and there is no way you can prevent that either. So, I invite you to go out and judge them. Go out and see the freaks, the popular people, the sweethearts, and the rebels. Go and make new friends or even new enemies, I really don’t care which. Just get off your lazy butt and put this paper down. Judge on mi amigo (Spanish for my friend) and remember to just be you.