We live in a world full of hate and deceit. Many of us just stand aside and ignore what happens around us. What if, even for just one day, we really stopped to look? How many lives could be saved? How many people might not feel so alone anymore? We are all well aware of the kids that sit by themselves during lunch or that never have a partner in class. Some of us have come to the point where it we automatically shut out those kids, the “geeks” and “losers”. We’ve even started to justify ignoring them. “They like being by themselves anyway” “They could change if they wanted” “It’s not my problem” “They’re just freaks, they like it that way”. We’ve all said one of those things at one point or another. I’m not saying that I’ve never said those things because I know I have, probably dozens of times. The question is why. It would be so simple to walk up to someone and just say hello or tell them they look nice. So why don’t we? For me? I’m scared. I say this to myself now and it seems ridiculous. It’s certainly isn’t rational or even really justifiable. Most of the excuses we use aren’t. We can think of plenty of excuses when we want to though, plenty of reasons not to talk to someone. “What would people think?” “What if they get offended?” “I probably wouldn’t really do anything to help anyway”. We let these excuses and self-assurances slip into our minds so that we’ll feel better about not doing anything. I’m not trying to sound like a hypocrite; mostly I wrote this for myself, putting things back into perspective and as a reminder for myself of what I think about this. These are the things that I’m not even close to mastering; or even barely achieving. I speak from experience and hopefully, I’ll remind others too. Being mean, that’s easy. Being nice on the other hand…that can be the hardest thing in the world.