We welcome you readers back to another double dose edition of the one and only Magazine that’s being published every other week. It’s the one and only OT tasked with bringing you guys the golden message of positivity this week. I was planning to give my opinion on a couple of these weekly topics, but because one of you amazing young people wrote about something that really struck a chord within the strings of my heart so I’m gone take a different route.
Take a look at where you’re at. I take a look at where I’m at every single day. I reflect on how I got here. My brother David always talked about an important word that we all fail to recognize, especially when we’re young. Your journey. I would remember when he would tell me.
“Thank you brotha, for allowing me to be a part of your journey in life.”
He felt privileged to be a part of my life’s struggles, my poor choices, my errors, my mistakes, believing in me when no one else did, because he didn’t judge my character by my felonies, or my crimes, nor my mistakes. See, we live in a judgmental world, where our errors are publicized on social media, by someone else.
People laugh at you when you trip and fall down, and sometimes it is funny, if we all are laughing together at something silly, but most of the time that’s not the case. It’s easy to laugh at other people’s mistakes. But it is even harder laughing at your own mistakes.
Sometimes we don’t really stop and think before we do things. Reaction often comes without thinking. We don’t think about the consequences or about the reactions of others, or about who we hurt because we are all worried about our own needs.
Nobody likes to be made fun of when we trip and fall, but yet, we laugh when others trip and fall. Why is that? Have you stopped to ask yourself why? Or have you even thought about the hypocrisy in that? We love to point the finger at others, but don’t like it when the fingers are being pointed at us? Is that even normal? It’s normal, because who said so? The masses? The popular groups? The influencers? Do you just stop and listen to anybody that surpasses a certain amount likes?
It’s popular to be real nowadays. I remember in a workshop not too long ago; I was asking the youth certain questions about their lives? I won’t get into any specifics, about what I asked, but I remember no one raising their hand. But then I asked this question:
“Okay, how many of y’all think y’all real?”
I remember that all the youth raised their hand. Now, I got y’all attention. Real. Who’s real and who’s fake? That’s a real popular topic and question. Matter fact in high school, even before social media was around, I remember we judged people by what they said, in person, to see if they were actually about what they said they were about. Quite frankly, we all think we’re about it. We all do, me, you, and your homey, will say, “Man, I’m real.”
We are all chasing a mirage. A mirage where the standards have been set by people, who you don’t even know. If your mom and dad gives you advice, considering that they are doing it with their best interest at heart for you, we blow them off. If your teacher gives you advice or tries to help you out, we refuse to listen to a nerd.
“What does this teacher know about life?”
“What does this person, teacher, relative, friend really know about the words they say, or the advice or message that they are trying to preach?
Have we all become so blind to the fact, that when someone falls, your first real reaction should be to extend your hand and help them get up? When you do help them get up, and that person laughs, then you laugh with and not at them? Big difference huh?
Because I’ll tell you what, if someone falls in front of me, first thing I’m gone do is help them get back up. I may laugh after with them, once I see they are comfortable enough to laugh at their own, mistake, goof, error, or whatever you want to call it.
Why don’t you become your own influencer and become a leader not a follower. Because the last time I checked, if you’re real, like you claim to say that you’re real, then I’m pretty sure real people, are leaders not followers. But nowadays we are all taught to follow a trend. If I’m not making sense to you right now, stop reading. Because you are going to hate what I’m gonna say.
None of us are real. We are all fake. We are all caught up in a system where what we think is cool, is not really cool. We are all laughing at others, when we don’t wanna be laughed at. We are all judging others when we don’t want to be judged, and that’s because trending, being popular, appearance, superiority, the illusion of being perfect, with no stains on your Jay’s or AirForce One’s, or Adidas, is perceived to be cool, in other words real.
Have you seen somebody fall, and instead of following the crowd by laughing at them, were you the only one to extend your hand out to help them get back up? Were you real enough to notice the embarrassment on their face? The physical or emotional pain when they fell down. And instead of doing the right thing and helping them, you decided to be a follower and laugh, instead of being a leader and helping them get back up?
I don’t follow the trend. I set my own. So, call it what you want to call it, but let’s be real. You can’t be real and be a follower. Stop lying to yourself. Don’t let the hype fool you. Be a leader. And then next time when everyone else is laughing at the person that fell down, be that one person that extends the hand to help them get back up. Remember ladies and gentlemen, that person that fell down, could be you.
OT is signing off with the utmost love and respect. Check, this game I just spilled. Much love!