Learn

I've learned something. And I feel that's the greatest thing a person can do: learn. For learning is compromising, not yourself, but rather compromising the idea you once had of what something was. . .what something meant. At seventeen, I'm doing more than my fair share of learning.

Learning that maybe Konrad sees me fitting in his life, but not in the original spot I had thought. Maybe he's right, maybe I'm right--or maybe we're learning that it's just a difference in perspective. A difference in how I view myself and where I view myself. Perhaps it's he who views himself differently, clouding his judgement enough to say "sorry, no" when I ask him if he feels the same. But what are feelings?

What is this need to validate how we feel? Why do we seek it in other people? If for once, humanity validated one another's feelings, our world would forever be changed. We would learn. Learn to coexist, learn that maybe (just maybe) you don't need to agree with someone's feelings to respect someone's feelings. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten frustrated because someone's told me I "shouldn't feel that way." You know what I can tell you? The number of times I've used those vicious words against another person since then. . . . It's easy to remember numbers that don't exist.

That is my learning, and that's the truth to it all. That I might not understand how someone feels. Perhaps I might not even agree with it. But that gives me no right to invalidate their feelings. Feelings are personal, they ought not to be changed, altered or interfered with. They are simply felt.

Learn not to question others' feelings, but to accept them. Do the same for yourself. Learn.