When You Feed Yourself the Minds of Others
The statement “we are what we eat” usually stands to be true. However, I have learned that the real effects of what we consume is not a result of the material we put into our body physically but the people and content we surround our minds with as well. I believe now more than ever is a time to reexamine what ideas are at the forefront of our beliefs and behaviors and how we came to those conclusions. Now I am most defiantly not undermining the value of intellectual conversation with others and the learning and forming of opinions from the such, as I must say that I have learned the most from these situations.
But, let me share some personal input. I used to be ignorant of many things that I should have at least pushed to be familiar with. I had a mindset that I could not let my ignorance be know, and the solution was to avoid such conversations all together. I didn’t like the feeling of having no clue what my friends were talking about, but how dare they discover my lack of knowledge or desire. So, I was simply ‘okay’ with it.
The people closest to me will tell you that I am a listener before anything. I will sit among a group of people for hours simply being satisfied with listening to the deep conversation without saying a word. I wouldn’t even notice that I never contributed to the conversation until my friends would ask, “What do you think, Avery?” When this question came up, I would immediately resent the interrogator, as I had no clue what my personal thoughts were on the said topic. I just wanted to listen, and I couldn’t find the issue with that. Now this situation happened often throughout high school, which I might add that my group of friends in high school was abnormally world-wise in conversation for our age, but it had pulled me out of the perverted, and may I add, usually meaningless discussion of many other groups of people I encountered at that age.
Now I don’t know where I want to go next with this because this group of friends has taught me numerous things throughout the past 4 years, good and bad habits that I have picked up from each of them, as I attempted to model my social mannerism after theirs. I by no means blame the people of course, as I was simply in a period of time where I was growing myself. However, while I am having to break certain habits and mindsets, I am find myself struggling to seek which of these are actually my own. Therefore, I encourage others to notice what you surround your mind with, especially through fundamental times of growth and discovery for yourself. Again, examine the good and bad, as I, above all else, want to see a younger generation with thoughts of their own that can be confident to speak for themselves. This is when amazing things will happen, as we were never made to think or perform the same.
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