As I've gotten older and started meeting new people, there's been a common thing I've learned.

People will actually refuse to like you, without getting to know you, just because someone they know doesn't like you.

Does that make any sense?

You are judging someone based off of someone else's perspective of that person. That's just not right. You have no idea what that person is like, who they really are, or anything about them. Just because you hear something through the grapevine, doesn't mean you should believe it.

Back in my junior high years (yes the super cringe-worthy years) there was this girl who was in ALL of my classes. Like out of 7 classes, she was in 6. I saw this girl practically all day, 5 days a week. On the first day, after noticing that she was already in 3 of my classes, I decided to introduce myself and say hi to her. She had an issue with her eyes that weren't all that noticeable unless you were talking to her. It didn't bother me.

That next day in school, another girl asked why I was talking to her. She tried to tell me she was weird, she lived in a house with no electricity, she was a huge liar about everything and that I shouldn't trust her. I couldn't understand why she was saying this because she was seriously super sweet. I ignored the girl's remarks, I knew that I needed to judge this for myself.

While the girl and I aren't close anymore (cause you know, adult life) she was one of my absolute best and closest friends from the day we met, till our senior year of high school. To this day, I bet if I messaged her and said I needed her help, she'd be there in a heartbeat.

That girl that was telling me all of those things about her? Turns out that she didn't like the girl I became friends with because she believed a rumor that she was talking to her ex-boyfriend. When in reality, the girl didn't even know who he was.

The phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" goes the same with not judging it based off of a review you read. You have to actually read the book to know if YOU like it or not. The same goes for people.

If you want to have a biased opinion of me, based off of something a friend of yours or someone you knew said, that's your loss. It's sad you won't take the time to get to actually know me, before deciding you don't like me.

Take a minute of your day to realize how silly that is, then go talk to the one everyone tells you to stay away from. (Unless they're a serial killer, then don't do that.)