"It is JUST my opinion"

You know what’s hard for a lot of people to do? To listen and understand. Something a lot of people crave for – but a talent that a lot of people lack. The lack of which normally ends up in disagreements, arguments and separations.

I’ve mentioned this before – I think. But it’s an issue that is very personal to me, thus the thoughts.

People crave to be heard and to be understood, but perhaps because of that particular craving, they forget that others yearn for the exact same thing. They want to be heard and understood so much, a lot of times, it just ends up to be just about how they feel or what they think is right.

Often I fall in the category of the misunderstood and unheard - which I think is partly the reason why I have a blog to begin with. I grow up feeling isolated, misunderstood and misinterpreted a lot of times, I was a quiet kid; and that is when I learned to listen. I grew up listening because a lot of people seem to not want to give me the chance to say anything, and that’s perhaps because I grew up among people who are very opinionated. Thus, when I acquire the confidence to speak up, I became very opinionated – and yet, I still actually know and understand where others are coming from.

But like I said before, people often refuse to want to listen to something that they don’t agree with.

Thing is, as much I understand what others say or explain – I still have my own individual feelings and thoughts – and that’s the only thing I wish people could just acknowledge – the fact that I’m a person with his own feelings – his own thoughts – his own brains – his own heart. If I could listen to you and understand you, why can’t you give the same respect?

I’m not saying I’m perfect, no. I, too, have once in a while become too engulfed into my own feelings and thoughts that the ego in me automatically repudiates where others are coming from.

However, when I say I understand – I actually do. But somehow, a lot of people, whenever I have something else to say, something that is of me, my feelings towards the subject – they automatically claim that I don’t understand. Just because I have own feelings, it does not mean I don’t understand where you are coming from. It just makes me human. All I hoped was that you give me the chance to speak up – that you would just listen to me instead of forcing me to comprehend something that I actually already understood perfectly.

And often, when people say “we need to talk” – they tend to dominate the talk and start to really be defensive – so really, that is not “us talking”, that is just “you talking”.

Sigh. Don’t people know, that just by listening and trying to understand where others are coming from, something that simple, could just really let us all live in peace and harmony?

love,
Muaz Al Rashid