4.

Life is full of boxes.

To be honest, they've been getting on my nerves a lot lately. These stupid, little boxes that we seem to place every single person that we encounter in; whether they're our best friend, worst enemies, random people on the street, or even ourselves, they've all got their boxes.

And once we've placed someone in their little box, there is seldom any hope of them ever escaping from it.

Maybe I should explain myself...

Lets start with our friends. Once we've been talking to someone for a little while, be it two days, two weeks, two months, or two years, long enough to decide if they're nice enough, cool enough, attractive enough, whatever, we place them in this box. It's this inescapable little trap and regardless of what they do to us, how they make us feel, or how they change, they will never get out. We'll either make constant excuses for their behavior towards us using the mask of friendship, or, we'll ignore the possibility of something drastically more meaningful than that title of "just friends." All for the sake of keeping them inside the comfortable little box that we've been so desperately trying to keep them in for all this time.

And then our enemies. Most of the time, if someone makes us angry enough, enough times, we'll place them in their little "enemy box." These are the people we decided from the start that we were skeptical of. They're the people who weren't quite nice, cool, or attractive enough, so we never put them in their "friends box." They've somehow managed to separate themselves from our friends who treat us like dirt, and as a result we come to loathe the very ground that they walk on. Usually, this becomes a permanent loathing attitude and regardless of how this person changes or turns their lives around, we will always see them as this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad person. And really, why? It's most always pointed back to one singular event, one one singular day, at one singular time. I've realized this is one of the more pathetic boxes. Especially when the friends of our enemies get boxed in with the enemy itself by association. In my opinion, enemies are just overlooked friendship opportunities. And I've never met anyone who would say they'd rather have enemies than friends...

I think we've all heard about the judging a random person on the street before getting to know them speech about a million times, so I'll attempt to spare you. And you might say that your best friend is someone you originally judged differently, but my response is to ask how long it actually took before you guys became best friends due to your judgments?

However, I think that the most destructive box in our lives is the one in which we place ourselves. Most of the people I've ever known have placed themselves in a box of mediocrity and conformity, and out of those people, I've only known a few to break out of it. Somewhere along the way, I decided to call it the "fail box." Maybe I call it a fail box because people seem to place themselves in it after what they wanted didn't work out in reality. After the standards they set for themselves were deemed unattainable or unrealistic. After what they wanted for their lives didn't happen the way they wanted it to, or under the timing they anticipated. It's really a stupid, yet understandable mentality. You fail once, so you put yourself in this box as an excuse for why you can't get what you want, or why you can't be who you want to be. If you've got an excuse, you'll immediately feel better about yourself, right? Ridiculous, yes. Inexplicable, no.

Boxes. Synonym; excuses, comfort, safety.

But since when was any progress ever made from staying in our comfortable, safe world of excuses? I propose we break out of our boxes. I move that we reexamine our relationships with different friends, enemies, acquaintances, strangers, and most importantly, ourselves, and that we remove them from the mental boxes we've placed them in and into a place where there are no limits. I suggest we take people for who they are, not who we've come to see them as or expect them to be.

Because boxes are stupid.

And I have a feeling we would all have drastically different lives if we got rid of them.