Get in their shoes (Empathy Self Intervention) by Mariel Bernal

This was actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be. At first, I was a bit confused because I didn’t know exactly what this was all about, but I think I got it, so here we go! Hopefully I understood right, if not here is a little story for yall.

Have any of you ever met someone and you just don’t like them? It isn’t that they did anything wrong or were rude in any way. You simply just don’t “dig” them. If you haven’t experienced this, I guess I’m just an A$$&*!#, but anyways. Not too long ago, my buddy invited me to go out for dinner. I didn’t know he was going to bring someone else with him. When we arrived he introduced me to his buddy, and immediately I felt some tension. We had dinner and the majority of the time it was just my friend and I talking.  We were done eating and we headed over to K1 speed(GoKarts). We did a few races and still not much talk from him.

The day was over and a couple days later my buddy asked me if I wanted to chill. I asked if his buddy was coming along, and he said yes. I told him, I rather not hang out when he was going to be around. He asked if there was a problem, if his friend had been rude. I responded to him, “I simply don’t like him bro.” Weird right? But thats how I felt. My buddy was getting married soon, so he told me that I needed to be mature and try and talk to him more because he was a shy person. He mentioned to me that he was going to be at his wedding so hopefully that wouldn’t be a problem since we were both invited. I didn’t reply.

It was the day of the wedding and we were all drinking. Everyone was dancing and having a good time, and my buddy’s friend approached me. He asked how I was doing and said he didn’t get a good vibe from me when we first met. I told him I felt the same thing. We ended up having a conversation about random stuff. I don’t remember half the conversation LOL. We ended up hanging out with our buddy another day and it was like if we had been friends for a while. We never touched back on the vibe we got from each other and till this day we are all friends.

Another occasion where I ran into something similar was the following. This happened at my work. I do caregiving, my title is DSP. I trained this person and the moment they walked past that door. I was like “Dang it, we got a cocky a$$ mother %@#$%* trainee.” Excuse my language. I started talking to him, and got to know him. Not too long after, we went out for a drink. Guess what? Now we spend almost every other day working on our cars, because that’s our passion. We’ve become really close. I guess you can say, sometimes you can’t stand what you are. I say this because people who I am close to now tell me that before we had met, they think the same of me.

I don’t know how this all happened, but I guess alcohol played on our side this time. I don’t recommend to drink though LOL. Hopefully someone can connect with me.

In conclusion, never judge and always be open. Put yourself in other people’s shoes and understand their point of view.

 

 

M.B.O

 

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