Since I was young, I was always taught “treat others how you would like to be treated.” I believe that’s what we consider to be called the “Golden Rule”. With that being said, I do not see this with everyone encounter. Society has created a stigma of treating some people like they are abnormal or weird due to a disability that they might have whether it is physical or mental.
When I got to campus I pretty much had my friend group already situated. I knew who I would be around and we knew we all would make an effort to be there for each other. Collectively we were cohesive, that cohesion carried us through about 8 weeks of the semester then I decided to try something different. There was a boy I met on campus, he did not seem to talk to a lot of people but I decided I wanted to be nice. I went up to him and spoke to him, we talked for a little bit and once we started speaking it pretty much poured out of him. This sense of all it takes is communicating to someone that you don’t know to make them feel welcomed.
After a few times we would randomly bump into each other here and there. We would communicate and catch up a little. Doing this we built great rapport to the point that I started introducing him to my other friends. Having the great friends that I do they embraced as if we knew him for years. It got to the point where we exchanged numbers.
All this to say that he has a social disability that many people would see and not speak to him. However, when I saw that he was a kid constantly by himself I felt obliged to reach out to him. Whether he has a disability or not, that does not make him any less human. Treating him with the same respect and love I would treat any new person I met. I believe in life we have strayed too far from the “Golden Rule” that it seems like hate has spread through everyone. However at the end of the day, everyone has a friend in me.
Unruly Bodies 