At one point or another in almost everyone’s lives one can admit to negatively judging a person before truly getting to know them. Often times we let our first impressions or our friend’s impressions of someone pave the way for giving them a label and rarely a second chance. When we allow our friends impressions of a person to taint our perspectives of someone it typically results in the same feelings about that person. We need to stand on our own and let ourselves decide how we feel about that person.

I can’t even tell you the numerous times I have been given a label after meeting someone for the first time and never gotten a second opportunity to show them who I really am. If only I had been given a chance they might have been able to see the person I actually am, and maybe we would have even become friends. Since they were quick to judge they will never get the opportunity to see the truth about who I am.

Maybe you have heard something bad about a person from your friend, like they were a b****, or stuck up. Maybe you thought they gave you a bad look or rolled their eyes at you. Maybe you judged them because they were wearing different clothes than you or had a different hairstyle. There are a million ways to judge people but that doesn’t mean we should do it.

Why do we do this? Why do we judge people and label them? Does it make us feel good? Or make us feel better about ourselves? We all know nobody is perfect, but does that mean we should live our lives by picking out the negative flaws of others?

If someone’s ever made a generalization about you, maybe after meeting you once, or even before meeting you at all, you know how it feels; it feels really shitty. If you’ve been lucky enough to not experience this I hope you never have to experience this. I also hope you were never on the other side making judgments about people and giving them labels without really getting to know the truth about that person.

Although if you have ever made a generalization about someone it may not be too late to fix it and if it is, it’s not too late to stop yourself from making generalizations about people in the future. Next time you catch yourself judging someone before you know him or her, stop and think about it. How would you feel if you were on the other side being judged? In changing your thought process hopefully that will make it easier for you to stop and give them a chance.

We all need to stop judging people. Whether we judge them on their appearance or on their personality, just stop and don’t do it! I want our generation to be the generation that stops judging. We have already taken great strides in this, for example legalizing gay marriage.

Millennials are known for being open and accepting with many different things. So let's take the same approach on accepting everyone and not letting our judgments get in the way. No matter if a person is gay or straight, black or white, underweight or overweight, introverted or extroverted, don’t be quick to judge them, give them a chance, a chance to prove you and your negative judgments wrong.

From here on out I hope you really think about judging a person before giving them a chance to show you the truth about themselves. I encourage you all to stop judging, generalizing and labeling. All it takes is a little effort to make the world a judgment free zone and I can guarantee people will be much happier and carefree.