I like stream of consciousness

Maybe because it's later at night and I don't have the energy to organize my thoughts.

Why do we judge other people the way we do? I understand that we need to find ways to organize personalities and all primarily based on first impressions, but when we then close our minds to re-organizing and re-evaluating thins along the way, we cheat ourselves of the truth.

There was a girl in church today (Matt, you know who) who seemed unsually sad (although I didn't actually ask her about it). I started thinking about the perceptions I've had about this girl (high-maintenance, mostly friends with people outside the ward, sometimes misses her RS meetings, etc.) and began to realize that I have no right to judge someone else. I am basing all of my judgments off of very little contact time and mostly on first impressions. I love it when people surprise me and change my ideas about who they are. Maybe I should also feel a little guilty that I was too hasty in the past.

I can really appreciate it when people know exactly how to say what I've felt/been feeling. Today in sacrament meeting someone bore their testimony about how there are so many people around us that go through the same (or very similar) trials as we do. What good would it be for everyone else if they didn't have to go through hard times? And I don't even know how often I've thought to myself, "yeah, other people have issues too, but they couldn't have gone through anything this hard." And it's not just a "well I know at least the Savior has felt my pain" sort of thing. People I know have gone through the same problems and same trials! The ones who always seem happy and like everything is going well for them. The ones who I talk to all the time, and who I've felt like I've come to know them really well. Those same people know what it's like too! What a comfort!

I'm going to strive for shorter and more frequent posts from here on out. It seems like it's easier to keep people's attention that way. Plus I've forgotten all the other things I had on my mind. That's the downside to stream of consciousness writing I guess...