TEAGAN ALEXANDER

The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about.

I have considered myself an open-minded person, always - not judgmental or hateful. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. I have always told myself that you cannot truly say something negative about an individual unless you know everything that they have been through - and chances are, you do NOT know everything that someone has been through. I've always told myself that, but when I stepped into Project Shattered Silence I experienced it first-hand...

There are about nineteen kids in Project Shattered Silence. The director and most of the "students" are people that I have known for awhile, whom I care for deeply... Those first few meetings, early on a Saturday morning when all of our inhibitions were a bit groggy, we would have group discussions: we shared (and still share) stories of personal experiences. When we chose to donate the profits of our final show to a charity working towards equality, we sat in circles, a few of us sharing personal stories... we all opened up to one another. Had we been discriminated against? Had our friends? Had we ever? These people that I considered myself close with... they have these whole worlds inside of them, waiting to be discovered by others.

What I had been telling myself all along was true - We can't judge others EVEN if we think that we know them well. Everyone has aches and pains, and universes of thoughts inside of them. Can you sum up a whole universe with just one glance?

The complexities that people have are so wonderful, so intriguing... What is even more remarkable is that we all go through heartaches and loves and let-downs and judgments, even if they are different scenarios for each of us, the basic premise is the same.