Prove It

"When a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

-Maya Angelou

So... I'm fully aware that we live in a time where words aren't taken for their worth and face value is basically the equivalent of a lie, but what happened to genuine sincerity the first time you meet a person? (Run-on sentence, much?)

A bit random, I'm sure. However, my thinking is not completely out of a whack. What had happened was... a friend picked me up from the bus station tonight (I was in NY this weekend visiting my best friend and God daughter. Yes, visiting with them made my life. Who could be anything but happy at the site of this face?)

Anywho, the friend who picked me up had a friend with her in the car. No biggie. We decided to stop at this Malaysian restaurant for fried ice cream on the way back to campus. As a result, we all indulged in (not so great) food and (possibly) good conversation [dependent upon your definition of good]. Whatever the case, a lot of our conversation left me feeling interrogated or as if I had something to prove.

Example? Anyone who is anything in my life knows I'm a Jigga fan. I don't know how this came up in the conversation, however I'm not surprised it did. Once this was brought to his (my friends-friend's) attention, he asked me what the first few words to Can I Live were. I wanted to be a complete jack and say, "Do you mean the intro where he's just talking and says, [Yeah, yeah, Rocafella- We invite you to something epic]..." or the part where he actually starts rapping and says, "While I'm watching every..."

Why didn't I? Prior to this, I was on the phone with my best friend speaking Spanglish (battered and thrown together Spanish and English). Upon hanging up the phone, this guy asked me to carry a conversation with him in Spanish. This all just felt too extra to me, and after being questioned about the Jay line, it hit me as to why. He was one of "those kind of people".

When I say "those kind of people", I'm referring to the ones who want you to prove yourself from the very beginning. We've all encountered them. Are they wrong for their nature? Not entirely. I can understand a person wanting to test the worth of a persons word. However, until someone shows lying or exaggerations to be in their character, what's with all the post tests?

It came off a tad pushy and overly aggressive to me. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling it. My response to him was, "I'm not one of those type of people. I don't really feel like I have something to prove." In short, responding to his little propositions would have made me feel like I was playing a game. I don't know. The situation just felt dumb and unnecessary. It's my belief that the proof is in the pudding.

It's the 21st century, and technology is a beast. If I wanted to carry on a conversation in Spanish and didn't really know how to or didn't know the lyrics to a song I was questioned about, it's nothing I couldn't figure out within 10seconds by logging online from my phone. However, the principal of it all is that actions speak louder than words. In situations like these, I think it's best to let a persons actions prove the truth behind them, and things like that take time.

Don't just ambush a person on your first encounter. Third degree never got anyone anything but burns.

Think About It,
B