Learning not to judge the hard way

Every time I heard the phrase “Don't judge a book by it's cover.” I thought ya right that's not so hard all I have to do is be nice to the person or even better not even to talk to them. However as I got older I learned that there was deeper meaning to the phrase. When I first meet a person, I subconsciously judge the person based on his or her looks I know it is a terrible thing to say however every human being does it. I used to judge a person on their clothes, hair, shape of the nose and all these other little things. I basically made all these assumptions about people without even talking to them let a alone say one word to them.

However when I was fourteen I learned this lesson the hard way. Apparently all my life I have been living with  scoliosis which is a curve in the spine. There are a few ways to fix scoliosis one is to wear a brace which, lucky for me I never had to other is going to a chiropractor , which I been going to one for about 8 years it really didn’t help me if anything it made my spine worse  and the last way to fix scoliosis is  get surgery. Over the years, my spine had just been getting worse and it finally came down to the point where I had to get spine surgery. Now spine surgery consists  of putting metal rods and screws in the spine.

I remember the day when the doctors told me I need spine surgery because my spine was like a shape of an S.  I was so upset that I went to my room and cried for about five hours just sitting there wondering why? Why did this have to happen to and why the hell was I the one born with the S like shape spine. Then it occurred to me could people see that there was something wrong with my back and if they did. What were they thinking about me were they think I am some freak because one of my shoulder blades is sticking out about 1 inch longer than the other. Could people see that the shirts I wore fit me a bit different because my was scrunched up like an accordion.

And, if people thought I was a freak now with about a 70 degree curve what would they think when I had about 2 rods and God only know how many screws are used for this type of sugary. After the nasty 12 hour surgery, I thought I was some walking sort of walking mutant because I had rods and screws in my back. I sat in the hospital bed just thinking about how people will judge me and what awful names I be called. This was just the perfect way to start high school people would judge me on one little thing I had no control over I thought. Then it hit me being judge on one little thing sucks. I mean who as the right to dislike me because of my back and what right do other people have to judge someone based on their looks No one. The only criteria I can a judge a person is based on how kind and respectful they are. One of my favorite quotes is “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about” because it is saying I be kind to people and not judge them on the little things.


After going through all this, I finally realized I should not judge a person based on their looks because looks can be deceiving.  That's why it bothers me so when people judge people based on their race, gender, their sexuality  or the shape of their nose or head. It’s the little things that should not be judge and I have a back scar that will always remind me that I have no right to judge a person based off of one little thing. I believe in backbone, because it taught me I should never judge a person based on their looks but rather their character.