It’s almost the end of summer in Canada, which means that I’ve been trying to get in as much face-time with those surrounding me. It’s been great catching up with everyone and discussing everything under the sun, however, what I wasn’t expecting was a general tone of disappointment.

It’s something that concerns all walks of life, and it’s how we treat one another as human beings. I never thought that the words “Kids have no respect these days” would parse through my lips at the tender age of 32, but you can bet I’ve said it more than once in the last couple of weeks. I would like to amend that sentence, however, and say that no one has respect these days. At least, that’s the perception of everyone these past weeks!

It boils down to how we treat one another; the fact that we do not care or respect anyone who is different from us is quite alarming. I see people continually putting others down for not getting something right away, for feeling anxious over something small or wearing an off-putting shirt. Why do we do this? What’s the point of berating someone for not being like you?

No one person is going to be an exact clone of you and nothing that you’re doing in your life can be marked as “perfect,” either.

Maybe if everyone got off of their high horse and realized we’re all standing at the same start point their perception could change.

Life is so much more than just one person or one family. It’s OK to be selfish once in a while, but if you base your life on the motto to “look after yourself.” you’ll start to see your private world shrink from existence. We all thrive off of one another, and the smallest action has a huge impact. We need to change who we are as a society and our negative impacts on each other and CHOOSE to build each other up.

Can you imagine what our world would be like if we all made this small change?