Judge not that ye be not judged*

Since today, May 21st, 2011, is the end of the world, I thought this post would be fitting. Save yourselves!

This is Jamie.

Normally, I wouldn't use his real name, but no pseudonym will do. Jamie is just thoroughly Jamie. The first time I met him, I definitely judged him. I even thought, "Wow, I am never going to be friends with that kid." I mean, you know my stipulations surrounding men. Well, first of all, they have to be manly. Second they have to be tall. Third, they have to be dark.

As you can see, Jamie is none of these things.

But let me tell you.

I LOVE Jamie. He is probably one of the best friends I made all year long, and once I got to know him I just couldn't get enough of him. We could just talk and talk and talk and talk forever and I would never get bored. And he's so dang funny. Here are a couple original quotes by none other than him that just cracked me up:

"Sometimes I wear toe spacers. They sell them at Walmart next to the eye patches."

"That tree's not with the program yet."

Anyway, the point is, I judged Jamie hard core and I almost prevented myself from knowing one of the best people I'll ever know. So don't judge based off looks. Seriously.

Here's another example from an earlier era of my life:

Remember Brother K? Our seminary teacher from last year. When I walked into his classroom for the first time and saw him standing up there at the front, I was like "I am sooo switching out of this class." I mean, take a look at him. Short. Like, short. Scrawny. White. I know, I judged him hard core. But for some reason that I don't remember, I stayed in his class, and I am SO GLAD that I did. He was beyond doubt my favorite seminary teacher of them all, and he made me laugh more than anyone has ever made me laugh in my life. And it was real laughing that I could not control. That doesn't happen to me very often.
The other day I was going through my old seminary stuff, and I came across my little notebook for that class, and in that little notebook were two pages of quotes from Brother K. that I'd written down. Okay, just sitting in my room reading those quotes off a piece of paper had me laughing out loud. I thought you'd like to reminisce with me:

"Hell is like school."

"Here's a sword. If you die, who cares?"

"I encourage my wife to wear makeup."

"He's kind of a senior boy with a sophomore approach to life."

"I grew up in front of a fire hydrant."

"No, I'm not sharing my Vodka."

"I will kill you Brother K! How dare you have us read scriptures in seminary!"

"His name is Roy and he's dead."

"Pretty much we're ugly scumbags. Thank you."

Bahaha! I love that guy. I'm glad I didn't let my judgments get in the way of enjoying his class .

Lesson, learned.