Sydney Simpson
English 1- 4
April 9, 2015

At some point in our lives, we have all heard the phrase “put yourself in other people’s shoes.” While this quote is not suggesting that we all buy matching footwear, it is rather saying that to know what someone is going through, we must see their situation from their point of view. As humans, we sometimes tend to wave this “suggestion” off. However, it is important to see a situation in the eyes of another person because it’s a way to make friends and to have some idea about another person’s situation.
Being judgmental is part of human nature, so as the judgmental people we are, it is easy-breezy to leap straight to conclusions about a person before getting to know them. For example, everybody in school knows about the weird-nerdy-kid who sits alone in the back of math class, but they don’t know his situation. Instead of using that person as a reason to giggle, they should think of him as an opportunity to get to know him and “put themselves in his shoes.” Trying to see another person’s situation from his or her point of view makes for an understanding friendship. In addition, the snobby girl who never speaks to anyone because she’s cooler, prettier, and smarter than everyone happens to be quiet and shy rather than a girl with a high-and-mighty attitude. Seeing other people’s situations in their point of view can completely change the way we think about them. Therefore, understanding people’s backgrounds prevents us from being judgmental too fast and makes us friends along the way.
There are a number of people walking down the hallway day after day who are dealing with tough times and are just trying to keep their head above water. Rather than making assumptions about these people, we must first stop and make sure that we know their situation. To illustrate, there might be someone coping with a family loss, but nobody bothers to imagine the tragedy of their issue. If people nowadays would put their precious phones and distractions behind them and get to know other people, everybody would be friendlier. Furthermore, the boy who always has his nose where it doesn’t belong may strike people as obnoxious, but the reason behind that may be that he doesn’t get much attention at home, making him want to gain it someplace else. Because people may see someone as annoying, clingy, or rude, they still are in no position to treat that person any differently from anyone else. Therefore, we must bring other people’s situations to our attention in order to truly see what they are dealing with.
With the thought of “putting ourselves in other people’s shoes,” it is important to see situations through other people’s eyes to have a clear understanding of what people deal with on the inside and maybe make a few friends along the way.