It’s a powerful thing to listen to another person’s story. 

I struggle with making way too many assumptions of others. Just from one or two interactions, I tend to make my mind up about a person: their worth and value, their skills and downfalls, and their openness and friendliness. It’s arrogant and it’s definitely a flaw.

It’s a mistake I’ve often made, and it’s something I’m trying to work on, because over and over again, my assumptions are proven wrong. 

It’s easy to stereotype. It’s easy to group people together and think they are the same. Whether it’s millennials, seniors, or whatever demographic, it’s easy. But those stereotypes get in the way of getting to know the individual. And if there’s one thing I value, it’s the opportunity to be known by someone else, and to know someone else. 

I’ve been spending the past few months working at a poultry farm, and as it was meant to be a short time of employment there, I originally gave little thought into investing into relationships there. I just wanted to go in, learn the job, get good at the job, learn some things along the way, and then move on. 

In the beginning, it was easy to keep to yourself. There weren't too many opportunities to talk to the other people who worked there as the job kept you going at a steady pace, and most kept to themselves on breaks, and so I sort of kept to myself as well. 

Marvin, one of my supervisors, from El Salvador. 

But slowly, as little conversations sparked into shared interests, relationships started to form. There’s a large foreign worker community at this farm, and it was interesting to hear stories about the Philippines and El Salvador, and soon these stories and talks led to spending time together outside of work. Through talks with supervisors, I began to understand their leadership philosophies and how they manage the staff. 

There’s a really interesting thing that happens when you spend time with your colleagues outside of work. At work, it can be easy to get frustrated with people. Those who work at a slower pace or seem to lack motivation can frustrate me, especially when I feel like I’m putting in my best effort and taking the initiative to find different ways to work efficiently. It’s easy to judge someone based purely on their productivity and efficiency at work. 

But as you get to know people, begin to understand their personal lives, their families, their priorities in life, it begins to soften those judgments. 

I’ve tried to make it a goal to try and get to know all sorts of people, and through these conversations, my hope is to gain a more rounded perspective on how people view life. It’s been a fruitful experience, and though it’s inevitable that my perspective won’t always fall in line with others, at the end of the day the main thing I keep taking away is that we are all human, we all have our hardships and struggles, and we all have to find ways to get along and coexist together. 

I hope that as I continue to hear the stories of others, that my judgmental character will decrease and be replaced by something I believe the world needs more of. 

Understanding and empathy.