Don't Judge the Book by Its Cover

We know that life works in a mysterious way.
I believe that every time we meet a person, we might have to learn something from her/him.
And here what I've learned for the past few months.

I do believe in the "law of nature". I mean, if you do something good to the nature, then you'll get it back, somehow. And my last experience taught me that we shouldn't look down on people. We shouldn't underestimate them.
I know the theory pretty well, but subconsciously, I still do that sometimes.
I didn't notice it until someone did the same thing to me. And believe me, it wasn't a pleasant thing.

In the country where I come from, we have a saying that: "The smarter you are, the more down to earth you should be". I know it works the other way around in other countries. In some of the Western countries, I notice that if you're smart, then you should show it to the world. Well, each country has its own culture, right?
I can't really tell which one suits best. I think it depends on the person.
As for me, I feel more comfortable for just being calm and cool... :) ;)

Anyway, back to the lesson that I've just learned. Firstly, it becomes clear to me that I shouldn't judge people if I didn't know them very well. If one don't really know the person yet, why should one judge them?
Secondly, I shouldn't underestimate people. In life, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that each person has different interests with the others. So, I should respect and appreciate other people's interests.

"Don't judge the book by its cover", it's probably the best way to say it. I remember when I was a kid, I had two childhood friends. They're the sons of my Mom's bestfriend. These two boys are brothers. The elder one was very naughty and hyperactive. The younger one was extremely calm, he barely talked. Both of them were very smart. The elder one used to tease me a lot and he wouldn't stop until I cried. Very naughty, indeed... but I liked to play with him because he was so lively and full of surprises. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy playing with the younger one, because he was so quiet. If he came along with his Mom without his elder brother, I didn't even know what to do or what to say. So, I didn't really bother to talk to him.

Anyway, years gone by... the elder brother had to go to the United States to study. And the younger brother sometimes still came to my house with his mom. One day, I put an effort to start a conversation with him. And guess what.... he appeared to be nice and quite talkative! We could talk about everything and he could even laugh out loud. Something that I never saw before! Even his Mom was quite surprised that his younger son could chat, joke around and laugh out loud like that! :D So, since then, everytime he came by with his Mom, we always spent hours chatting, discussing, etc. I enjoyed talking to him as he's very knowledgeable. We became good friends until he left for Japan to work there.
So, I've made a mistake. I judged the book by its cover. My childhood friend whom I thought was quiet, too nerdy and as silent as a rock, appeared to be quite chatty and interesting.

And I should probably remind myself of this story every time I meet new people... A thin book doesn't necessarily have a shallow content...