Judgement

I found myself this past weekend in my counseling skills class trying to prepare myself, for what I thought was going to be the worst part of the class...ROLEPLAYING! I have always hated role playing in the past because of many reasons, but a lot of times it is because it is done in front of the class while everyone is watching, or your partner (as well as myself) has a hard time making things serious and not laughing the whole time. However, this past weekend, a lot of things changed for me, even my idea of role playing.
In this class was a woman who I never liked having class with, the reason was that she constantly talked and asked questions. She had great points and questions (most of the time) but it took her 5 minutes of explaining to get to the actual point/question. It drove me insane! During the role play time we were instructed to always go with someone different, everyone in our class wanted to avoid this woman, and so partnered up fast, I decided to take the jump and be with this woman. I thought it was going to be the worst role-play of my life, when in turn it ended up being the best.
I found out things about this woman that I never would have guessed, she was nothing like I had imagined. I knew the woman had a good heart to begin with but I just couldn't stand her, I couldn't bring myself past her "in-class personality" but this role-play brought me out of my "judgement shell." I truly learned the meaning to the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover" I know it sounds cheesy but I did. I learned about her past and even told her about how I felt when I was with her in class and she expanded on why she takes so long to ask a question or raise a point. Although I still find myself getting a little annoyed in class when she begins to speak, I find myself being more understanding and really listening to what she is saying. I have even noticed that as I see others rolling their eyes and making faces I want to defend her myself.

Being in the counseling field, means having to learn to put judgements aside, and not judge your clients because no matter what they are people too and I am there to help them. So needless to say my thoughts of role-playing have been changed and I think I have opened up a little bit about the need to explore further in a person's background and understand them better before I am so quick to judge. It's only been a couple of days since this new-found experience of mine, but I think it has changed me a little and I am hoping that I continue every day to practice what I learned over the weekend not only about people but most importantly what I have learned about myself through the weekend and my "sessions" with a "therapist."

I invite anyone and everyone to do the same as I have done. Take that extra step in really getting to know someone a little bit or just thinking about them and why they might be doing the things they do. It may not make you love them or even like them, but it may help you to understand them.