Having Good Character

How many times in your life have you been chatting with friends, and you mention that a particular person is in a class of yours. You've never personally met them, but you know who they are. Your friends then go on to say their opinion of this person because they know them. Maybe they say good things about this person. If this is the case, it is a relief to you because it will make that person that much more approachable if you ever need to go talk to them. On the other hand, maybe they do not know this particular person, but they know people who know this person and those people do not like them. So your friend then proceeds to say negative things about this person whom they do not personally know. Or, maybe your friend goes on to say negative things about this person because they do know them. Whatever the case may be, I think it is safe to say that we have all been in a situation where we hear things about a person that we have never met ourselves. Let's face it. Our friends shape our outlook on things. They could shape our outlook on people, they could shape our outlook on the things we like, or they could shape our outlook on our own opinions. To me, there is nothing worse than when a friend gives you a negative impression of a person. The other things mentioned above are negative, but for now, I would like to focus on when our friends talk about another person negatively before we have even met this person. I think we can all admit that we have been in this position many times before. My question to you is, how did you react? The way I see it, there are two ways you could have reacted. 1. Did you let your friend's opinions of a person shape yours before you even met the person? Or 2. Did you ignore your friend's opinions and shape your own of this person after you got to know him or her on your own? If you chose #1, well, to say the least, I am disappointed. If you chose #2, awesome! I am glad you have the character to know the difference. For those of you who chose #1, maybe it did not even occur to you that you do this. I have good news, you can change. You can acknowledge when things like this happen, and make the personal choice to react differently. It comes down to your character. Do you have the character to recognize that your friends ultimately bring you down in a situation like this? It is up to you to rise above this. Now, maybe your friends told you that a person was not nice to others. I am not naïve; I know that the world is filled with people who are not nice to others. My point is this: if you make the choice to not judge a person based on someone else's opinion of them, you allow yourself to make your own opinion of the person. Maybe you will see that your friend was right. What is even better is when you learn that your friend was wrong and you gained a new friend because of it. Your friend could have had a negative experience with that person and said things that were not true because they did not want you to be friends with them. If you let other's opinions shape your own before you even give a person a chance, you are automatically going to miss out on a potential friendship. The choice is yours. Next time, choose option #2 because it will make you a better person.