Men's Mindset — The Hate You Give When You're not Yourself

Knowing what I like, what I don’t like, and what I believe in is still something I’m figuring out. Some days I’m very sure of myself and I can speak up without thinking too much, but other days I just stay quiet, especially when I feel people around me won’t agree or it might just turn into unnecessary arguments.

There have been times I wanted to change my mind just to avoid stress, but later I usually feel like I wasn’t being real with myself. So I've come to understand that being true to myself means standing by what I believe, even when it’s uncomfortable or when others don’t see or reason the same way.

Keeping promises is very important because it builds trust. If I say I’m going to do something, I try my best to do it. Once you start not doing what you said, people may stop taking your word seriously, even if they don’t say it directly. Over time, it will definitely affect how people see you and how much they trust you.

Being honest and being nice are not exactly the same thing. Honesty means saying the truth, while being nice has to do with the mannerism of expression. I can be honest and still hurt someone if I'm too harsh or inconsiderate with my words. Apparently,I’ve realized that it’s important not to only be truthful, but to also be considerate about other people’s feelings.

If a friend asked me to lie for them, I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it. I understand why someone might want to help their friend avoid trouble, but I don’t think lying usually makes things better. Most times it only creates more problems later and puts you in a situation you didn’t need to be part of.

I watched a movie called The Hate U Give and the movie talked mostly about injustice, racism and police brutality. The movie was about a girl named Starr Carter that saw her friend get shot by a police officer even when he didn’t do anything wrong. That part was really painful to watch because everything just felt so unfair.

One social issue the movie showed was how Black people are sometimes treated differently because of their skin color. It also showed that sometimes people in power can do wrong things and still not get punished easily. What even got me was how Starr kept everything inside at first because she didn’t really know who to trust or what could happen if she spoke out.

_Screenshot from YouTube

The movie changed how I see this issue a bit. Normally when people talk about racism or police brutality online, it just feels like one of those news stories people talk about and move on from. But watching everything happen to Starr made me think about it differently because it didn’t just feel like another story people talk about online anymore. I kept thinking about how confused and hurt she must have felt after seeing something like that happen right in front of her.

Even till now, people still speak up when things are unfair and you still see protests happening because of situations like this. That’s one reason the movie stayed in my head after watching it, because the things shown in it are still happening in real life today.

pictures sourced from bossj23