As I have met people and experienced various situations, I have realized that every single individual's life is unique. No two people have been through exactly the same thing. Situations can be similar, but no two lives are exactly the same. It's easier to alienate them and disregard how they feel. But you will lose nothing by being empathetic. I have realized that I can try to relate and be empathetic but there is nothing I can do to change the given situation. I can't fix the person. Or make their problems go away. I can be there for them so they do not feel alone and so they know other people have felt the same way. I can give them advice and be a shoulder to cry on. But if I set the expectation for myself that I will somehow fix them, I will always be let down.
I hope that as I interact with them, I can do something to help them. I hope that I can impact them and do something to better them or change their life in some way. But why do I think that somehow I'm going to change their bad habits? Or that suddenly they will stop lying, or thinking badly about people or whatever else it would be. It will never happen and inevitably, I will let myself down because my expectations were set too high.
After countless years of doing things, people often do things the same way and get set in their ways. If they have been lying for their entire life, they probably don't even realize that they are doing it. It has somehow become their form of normal. I can be there for them and pick them up when they are down, but I can't change the way that they are. I can't try to better them if they haven't decided that they want to better themselves.
I sit here and hope. I hope that one day things will be different and that you will wake up and something will change.
I hope that I can do something to impact you.
I hope that you will decide to better yourself.
I hope that after you read this, you will be empathetic to others. But, when being empathetic, you can't expect to fix someone. Everyone has their own form of normal.
One thing I have learned is that if someone isn't willing to help themselves, there is no way you will be able to help them or make them feel something they aren't feeling.
