Anan thought of herself as a shy, kind-hearted and sensitive girl. She believed she couldn’t express her emotions and usually kept them to herself.
One fine day, Anan went to the market to buy some accessories, where she bumped into an old friend who was famous for being the bold and trendy girl in their class. The two started chatting and, during the conversation, Anan thought it would be a good opportunity to ask her friend how she looked.
Her friend replied that she looked pretty good, but her shoes didn’t go well with her outfit. She added that casual footwear might have suited her better.
Anan couldn’t accept the criticism. She took offence, rebuked her friend and mocked her for having a poor fashion sense. Her friend found it strange that Anan had asked for her opinion, but suddenly became offended when she received an honest answer.
In the evening, Anan went to a café to meet her colleague. While having coffee, they discussed a few things. At one point, her colleague disagreed with her and said that her proposed solution wasn’t practical and that they should explore other options.
Anan didn’t like this at all and became angry. Unable to control her temper, she took out her frustration on the poor waiter, complaining that he hadn’t served her properly, before leaving the café.
On her way home, Anan bumped into a teenager, causing the girl’s coffee to spill. Anan became furious and started yelling at her.
“Do you not see where you’re going? Are you blind or do you not know how to walk?”
Her tone was harsh and loud, causing everyone to turn and look at her. Unable to bear the embarrassment of being spoken to so rudely by a teenager, Anan apologised, held back her tears and hurried home.
That night, Anan cried in bed, thinking about how rude the girl had been. She kept dwelling on how mean her colleague and classmate had been to her. Not once did she realise that she had been treating others in much the same way. Instead, she continued to see herself as the victim.
As tears rolled down her cheeks, she thought about how cruel the world was to her. She still believed she was kind and innocent and that others were always finding ways to hurt her.
Suddenly, the waiter’s face came to mind, and she stopped. She felt terrible. That wasn’t right, she thought. He didn’t deserve to be treated that way.
The realisation made her sit up straight in bed. She began to think about the events of the day. When she had asked her friend for an opinion, her friend had simply told her what she thought. After all, wasn’t that what Anan had wanted to know?
Then she thought about her colleague. There was nothing wrong with suggesting other solutions, and disagreeing with her didn’t mean that he was insulting her.
And that was when everything became clear. Anan realised that she had been hurting others in the same way she felt hurt by them. A faint smile appeared on her face as she understood that perhaps the world wasn’t always being cruel to her. Sometimes, she had been unfair to others, too.
We often notice how others treat us, but forget to look at how we treat them.