First of all, take your notions of me aside and leave them be.
Please, Read on….with an open mind.
I ambled (or more so, stumbled) on to JU about a year and a half ago. I arrived little more than an 18 year old, who had just graduated high school. My ego was puffed out like blowfish; my thought process was, I admit, juvenile. I knew that there were other types of people out in the world, yet, it was like haze stood in the way. I had grown up to the age of 18 with a mantle of ignorance/naïve-ness over my head. I had no real-world experience.
Over time, I learned (the hard way) lessons of being yourself, tolerance, humility, second chances, and questioning everything, to name a few. Ask yourself why, why did that person do that? Is it their past? Present? What makes them continue/be that way? Is there anything I can do to help? I’ve been verbally dragged through the muck. I‘ve read about others in worse conditions than I. I‘ve lashed out and derided others through my looking glass, often not realizing that the reason I did so was that I had a bad day, or such.
I’ve come to appreciate (and, granted, at times despise) others. This goes along with tolerating other’s life styles, choices ,etc… One such example: Before JU, I was adamantly anti-gay/lesbian. Then I met and chatted with one, they were nothing like I had envisioned. They were human, like I. I’ve learned to turn my notions upside down. Stop-Look-Listen-Think. Restrain yourself a moment, and take a look through the other persons spy glass. Not always are you correct, no matter what your status may be.
I’ve seen JU evolve; new members coming, old ones leaving. (And vice versa) I’ve seen “net-ships” form and break, and people letting their “not so great” sides get the better of them.
I’ve come to question the concept of loyalty; is one to accept loyalty “no-holds-bar” and insist that one backs them in any situation? Again, this comes down to tolerance, and acceptance that we are different. We each have our own looking glass, whether your color be amber, red, or blue…
We (JU’sers) are merely words and monikers, if we passed by each other in the street, we wouldn’t know. (Except for those few who have made friendships with each other outside of the net…)
I feel that we (as humans) only are tolerant to an extent of satisfying ourselves; it could be said to be selfishness in an way. When it comes down to “go time”, do we accept the fact that those we call friends might not back us?
Just some thoughts…