There are some people in the world that believe since you do community service, are a good student or are nice to people to their face you must be a good person. I am here to tell you, that’s wrong.

Welcome to the realist of the world. I look for the best in the people who everyone perceives as awful and the worst in your local “angel.” Some may be questioning why i do this, I mean everyone judges a book by it’s cover right? I don’t. In life you will come across someone that looks and makes you feel good for a short period of time and then overtime you will realize, this person isn’t who I thought they were. Or you may be talking to that one kid in the back of class with a past nobody knows and realize the same thing, this person isn't who I thought they were. This epiphany has happened to me on more than occasion until i realized this whole good person thing cannot be told by how someone looks or how they make you feel when you first meet them. Some people deep down are monsters disguised as friends and friends disguised as monsters.

As a survivor of many broken friendships, and bullying I have seen my fair share of the so called angels. The kids who are popular, seem sweet and are super involved in school or something along the lines of that. You befriend them because everyone thinks they’re great. Then slowly as you get to know them you learn small things that would be red flags for those kids people perceive as bad but ignore them because they are known for being a good kid. The next thing you know, you are dealing with a scandal where they are talking trash about you, have turned on you or you guys have totally broken up friendwise. These are the times when you realize not everyone is who people say they are, who they say they are or anything like that. A way to aviod people like this can be testing them to see where their friendship really lies with you by making sure they are actually loyal and nice. Another thing you could do is put them under a magnifying glass before you become friends to make sure they are actually worth being in your life. These people are known as vanilla extract straight out the bottle to me, smells lovely, but once you have a taste it isn’t lovely anymore.

I have a special place in my heart for the misunderstood. The people everyone thinks are scary or because they have had a interesting and hard past that makes them a horrid person. This is not true, nor will it ever be. These people that I have met with bad pasts have been some of the best I have ever met. I have also found that the people who have had the hardest parts have been more misunderstanding than those whose lives have been smoother. To say that just because someone came from a bad background that makes them bad is wrong. Some people with the nicest parents, or who have had a wonderful background are not good at all. It’s easy to think they are just because everyone thinks they are but, sometimes it’s worth the risk to be the person to befriend the “scary” person.

For those who believe the same as me or who have been through the same experiences as me I congratulate you. It’s times of being bullied and being turned on which tell you who are your friends and where to look for new ones. Good people are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It’s hard to decipher between good and bad but I hope through this you have learned something. Life will get easier if you have just lost friends or are going through a hard time. From one survivor to another, don’t judge a book by it’s cover.