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A year ago, I started in a new theater group and I didn’t know any of the kids in the group. Our first meeting was a total disaster. They were all so different from the kids in my old group and very different from me. One had blue hair, another talked all the time – I mean, all the time! One had brought a vegan sandwich and just sat in the corner, eating. It was all very weird, and I felt so stupid! It was nothing like my old group! When I came home, I told my dad I didn’t want to go back to the new theater group. Even though I love acting, and I really wanted to keep it up, I felt like I couldn’t because I had absolutely nothing in common with those people. But dad didn’t buy that and used his parent voice and said: “Those people? I bet you are more alike than you are different.” He said I needed to go back and try to see beyond the exterior, beyond the blue hair and the vegan sandwich. That I probably was as alien to the girl with the vegan sandwich as she was to me with my turkey sandwich. That I needed to be a little bit more curious and a little less judgmental. I felt I didn’t have much of a choice and, without really believing his words, I decided to give it one more chance. So, I went back. And I tried to be curious. I looked for similarities, not differences. I felt shy, stupid, you name it, but to my surprise it turned out that the blue-haired girl and I shared the same taste in music – heavy metal! The talkative boy was just every bit as nervous as I was, and when he calmed down, he turned out to be a great listener, too. Who would have guessed? Now I just love my new theater group and can’t understand my first reaction. Imagine if I hadn’t gone back! I hate to admit that my dad was right, but he was, he really was. This got me thinking about how we react to strangers. We are so suspicious, and we treat them as if they were aliens from another
disaster katastrof weird konstigt exterior yta turkey kalkon curious nyfiken judgmental dömande choice val similarities likheter 1
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shy blyg talkative pratglad calmed down lugnade ner sig listener lyssnare imagine föreställa dig admit erkänna strangers främlingar suspicious misstänksam
