You just never know what someone may have gone through five minutes before you met them. So don't judge based on the first appearance, first meeting, or first encounter of anyone you've just met.

Five minutes before you met someone, you just never know what might have happened. They may have lost their best friend. They may have lost their family pet. They may have been in a car crash. For all you know, their wife of half their life may have filed for divorce. Or she may have died.

You never know what someone dealt with just before they walked through the front door of your house, the entrance of your business, or into your gas station. You have no idea what pain they may have suffered, what agony may be going through their head at the minute you meet them, or what they are struggling with. You just never know.

Five minutes before you met someone for the first time, they may have been laid off from the only job they've ever known. They may have been fired from a job that pays their mortgage payment, helps pay their kids college tuition or may be keeping them from drowning in debt. For all you know, they may have just lost their grandma.

No one has any idea what another person is struggling with or how they are suffering unless they share that information. And if you just met someone for the first time, chances are they aren't going to offer any personal information, share private details about their own life, or tell you anything about who they are.

For all you know, five minutes before you met them, their dad may have died.

And while this may sound dramatic, it may sound more serious than it needs to be, or it may sound like over embellishing the truth, the reality of it is you have no idea what someone went through before you met them.

You may have a first encounter with someone you've never met. And two minutes after they leave, you may be thinking that you've just met the biggest idiot on the planet or the nastiest, meanest and most verbally abusive asshole that God could ever put on Earth. But for all you don't know, their kid may have just died.

Every time you see someone and you get a pre-conceived notion about that person, you think you know that person, or you think you have the right to judge them, just put yourself in their shoes. Five minutes before you met a brand new person, your wife might have left you, your priest may have molested one of your kids, your bank account may have been hacked, or your cousin that you grew up with may have died. And now imagine if someone says the wrong thing, does the wrong thing, or just acts in a way that pisses you off? You may complete go off on them, insult them, degrade them, and leave them thinking you are officially the biggest asshole on the planet.

They have no idea what you just suffered through in the five minutes prior to meeting them for the first time. And that first impression may be the one that sticks in their head forever. They may think they've just met the nastiest person on the planet. But what they don't know is that your kid may have gotten into a car crash, your employer may have just burned to the ground, or your dog might have gotten hit by a bus.

Before you make judgment on another person, you need to stop yourself for a moment, ask yourself how much you really know about that person, and even if they are a friend, a cousin, a relative, a neighbor, or someone you are sleeping with, ask yourself a question before you make judgment.

Do you know what they just went through five minutes before you met them?