Lessonades

When life gives you lessons, you make lessonades. 

Everyone has an opinion. It could be as insignificant as: the whale emoji is the sassiest of all emojis. It could be big and complicated, like: the death penalty is morally okay and should be used to discourage crimes like murder. 

Everyone has an opinion and everyone has the right to have their opinion. They're important. They shape who we are and what we stand for. 

Today in ASMUN, they revealed to us that the reason they chose the theme of the sessions, was to have us learn how to formulate opinions and be brave enough to share them. 

In tv shows, the external conflicts in the episode often reflect on the internal conflicts for the main character of that time and they learn a lesson in the external conflict to help them with the internal conflict. 

So the external conflict in the tv show that is my life is we learn to express opinions in ASMUN. The internal conflict is this: I didn't like the Insurgent movie. 

The two friends I went to see Insurgent with loved it. A friend that already saw it also loved it. I didn't. I found myself thinking that I must be a pretentious bookworm because I didn't like this movie. (I might be, but that isn't the point). Then I found myself thinking that maybe I did like it. Maybe the environment ruined the movie for me (3D in Egypt is awful and the other movie goers were annoying). But that wasn't it. I just didn't like the movie. And that's okay. 

This happens to me a lot. I will find myself liking or disliking something. Then when someone disagrees with me, I start to second guess my own opinion. It's hard to stand firm with something when everyone else disagrees with you. 

I have now learned, thanks to ASMUN and Insurgent, that I can't do this to myself. I like what I like and that's perfectly okay. If you love Twilight or hate Beyoncé, that's perfectly okay. 

I keep saying that going abroad has "changed my views on things". I knew this was true, but I couldn't think of a specific example. Now I have one:

I've always had this preconceived notion about people who think homosexuality and the works are wrong, or a sin, or whatever. I thought they were terrible, stupid people. 

I was wrong. My host family and new friends hold these beliefs, but they aren't terrible or stupid. They aren't even a little bit bad. They're wonderful and awesome and smart and lovely. We just disagree on things. 

You see, my weak opinions were never on controversial topics, but on the people who hold views I think are wrong. 

Most the time, people's opinions don't make their personality. I disagree with people here on really big topics like religion and homosexuality, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends or family even. It's okay to disagree with people, that's what makes humans so unique. If everyone agreed on everything, life would be boring. 

So here's the lessonade: Trust your judgement and opinions. Just because you like something people hate or you hate something people like, does not mean there's something wrong with you. Also, don't judge people based on their beliefs. Don't let disagreements stop you from befriending someone. Just act like adults and agree to disagree. 

Thank you all for reading this post. I am really proud of it. I would love to know some unpopular opinions you guys might have. If you're brave enough, let me know what that opinion is. 

I hope you all are having a great day and I'll talk to you next time. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie.