Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you. 

- Dream Hampton

When I first came across this quote on Twitter, I had no choice but to retweet. It screamed at me, it yelled, "LOOK!" It speaks to me, because I waste too much time and energy caring about what other people think/say about me. I used to always want to prove somebody wrong and educate the ignorant. Until I realized that some people don't want to be educated. Once a person isn't interested in bettering themselves and educating themselves, they will tune you out. I stopped wasting my breath. But I haven't stopped caring. I haven't stopped subconsciously feeling the need to tell people the truth about me. People are always going to talk, regardless of if they have something valid to say. 

I feel like I'm a very misunderstood person. I say this all the time. Not to sound more complex than I truly am, but to be real. I feel like people are so quick to judge me. And I know I'm not the only one. People are prejudice by nature. I'm guilty of that crime as well. But when I say I'm misunderstood I mean it and have concrete evidence to back it up. All the time, I say "to know me is to understand me, to understand me is to not judge me, to not judge me is to love me." This could not describe my relationship with the people close to me, any better than a cliche quote. Very few people know me. Thus, very few people understand/love me. Even some of my close friends don't fully know me. It's a process to fully know me.

Judging a book by its cover is human nature. We all do that. But opening the book to see if your judgement was correct is a different story. Not many people take the time to do so. They will stay on the outside and not seek the truth. But I do. No matter what, I give people, places and things the benefit of the doubt. But people don't reciprocate the favor. From the outside, I supposedly look like a "stuck up", "cocky", "materialistic", "mean" and "high-sadity" individual. I walk with a certain confidence which looks like cockiness to those who don't know me. I CAN'T HELP THE WAY I WALK! Would you rather see me with a bowed head and lowered eyes? I don't get it. I can't walk normally with my head held high to showcase the integrity and confidence that I have? I truly don't get it. People call me the aforementioned names because of the clothes/shoes that I wear and the posture that I keep. Which makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm not a label whore. I don't wear expensive clothes/shoes. I don't need to. I can't! I wear affordable clothes and make it work. I guess I make it look expensive idk? But it bothers me that some don't take the time to get to know me and then judge me. If they feel the same way after getting to know me, than so be it. I can't change their opinion, but to say all these things without having at least three valid conversations with me, is extremely asinine. 

This year I need to work on brushing people off. On not caring so much. It's going to be hard because I was kind of raised to care how society views me. I need to understand that people are ALWAYS going to talk about and misunderstand me. I don't even know if I want everybody to understand me. That wouldn't be any fun, now would it? I can't waste my time and energy explaining myself to people who will always have their mind set on negating everything I say. Some of the most irrelevant people are committed to misunderstanding me. I don't want to fancy myself and say they're hating, but damn, can I live?

I've realized people will throw character assassinations your way when they are insecure about themselves.  Or when they don't have enough balls to admit the truth, so they rather pin your flaws against you to keep from being completely honest. The truth hurts for some, but not me. I am the last person that you have to lie to. I don't think it's necessary at all. If I can keep it real, and give people the honest truth, I can swallow it too. The same pill that I give, I can swallow. Trust me. But then again, you don't have to. You can continue lying, being in denial, and throwing jabs. I'll just keep it moving.