thoughts on “labels”

My feeling is that labels are for canned soup…I am what I am, and I know what I am. ~ Michael Stipe

Strict and snob. Among the most common first impressions that people have of me, those two adjectives stand out. And to be quite honest, to a certain extent, it does bug me. Nope, actually, a lot.

It’s quite trivial actually because what bothers me is not the “label” itself, but the “act of labeling”. Like, do the words “strict” or “snob” really do represent who I am and that is all there is to me? And more so, I am not one to judge (for lack of a better term) people based on what I perceive of them, especially when meeting them for the first time. And yes, “meeting them” does not consist of having a conversation with them.

It’s probably human instinct to organize or categorize things (and that would include people, I guess) . But placing people into stereotypical images is lazy judgment of character. There are different layers to a person’s overall being that just could not be deciphered by the furtive glance they give you, or their choice of clothes, or the way they speak or laugh in public.

And more so, there are those who put on a facade to make up for their own personal issues. Say, a person who appears to be shy and introvert might be suffering from issues of self-esteem and confidence; and you can’t help them raise the level of their self-esteem by assigning these negative labels. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also people who appear to be so self-assured and overly confident, and yet they use that to make up for conflicts or issues that they have to contend with themselves.

Appearance would always be ambiguous. In fact, some of my closest friends now had a slightly different opinion of me, as opposed to before they got to know me in a more profound level. Most people do not know that there is a goofy and wacky side to me. And although I am not one to speak to a stranger first in certain situations, does not mean I would single people out. Can I be strict or snob? Maybe. But that is NOT all there is to me. I’m just often misunderstood. And so are most of us.

If people are so keen on labeling, before long some of us might start putting price tags on one another. Who knows? In a world full of breakthroughs, that is not an impossibility.