By Alexis Schlesinger Editorial Staff It is completely baffling that so many people around me lack the ability to recognize the way a multitude of personality traits make up human beings. They are unable to comprehend that people are not defined by one thing you dislike about them, or one opinion they have that you disagree with. Overall, we are living in a plague of thoughtlessness. There is apathy toward wanting to learn, understand, know, listen, hear, empathize, comprehend, or appreciate the people around us. There is such a complete inability to pull apart people’s personalities, that it is often assumed that getting questioned is an attack, rather than someone trying to learn your perspective. You know you can look at a complete puzzle, take it apart, and put it back together again, right? You can take one piece out, examine it, and put it back where you found it and recognize its place in the completed puzzle. All of the pieces exist regardless of whether the puzzle is complete or not. Think about the middle points of completion, where you have a few chunks of the puzzle put together, and you see them as small groups - you slowly add on to them until it all connects. One puzzle piece is technically an image. It has edges. There is a “completed” image because it is contained inside the shape of the piece. It has boundaries that contain something. But it’s really not meant to be a complete image. It is made with the purpose of creating a larger image. The bigger picture. The whole person. You must get comfortable with contradictions being presented. Get comfortable with them in every way they could possibly be present in your life. Get comfortable with contradicting others. Get comfortable with contradicting yourself. Get comfortable with being contradicted. Get comfortable with the fact that some people have personality traits that contradict other traits they possess. It is a gift. The contradictions you find are a gift of a new perspective. Once you look at things in multiple ways, you will realize multiple views, ideas, perspectives, points, thoughts, opinions, theories, or conclusions can be true. Or you can decide you only believe one to be true. You don’t have to like contradictions. You don’t have to agree with contradictions. You don’t have to change your mind when you get contradicted. You don’t have to be confident in your ability to contradict others either. It’s OK to be nervous. Contradiction causes conflict because so many people assume that a contradiction to one view, idea, perspective, point, thought, opinion, theory, or conclusion contradicts them all. But contradictions are going to happen. Accept that contradictions exist. In “Song of myself, 51,” by Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” I have a huge problem with the lack of critical thinking displayed by people around me. And I am not only talking about people my age, or the generation following. I am talking about everybody who exists right now. You might think you are an empathic person. You might think you are thoughtful. You recognize others for their achievements. You uplift your community members. You’re a good listener, and you’re kind, and you always know what to say. You might be. I believe you are. But what about that kid in your class who is “actually the worst” because they have a different interest from you and talk about it too much? When would anyone ever need that information? Do you clap when they earned an award, or do you wonder how they could’ve possibly received it over someone else? After all, the skills they applied to complete their “groundbreaking project" were so niche, they were the only person who ever talked about it. Or that person in your group project whose ideas you thought were “way too complicated" - they offered to do it all themself but it doesn’t really need to be that deep. You just need to pass the class and move on - why should you have to have to present a complicated project just because someone else wants to? Are you impressed now that they have switched into a different group who admires their idea and gives them the space to get it done, or do you still hate the idea because they’re way more invested in the class than you are? Your coworker is a “total suck up.” They do extra work, pick up extra shifts, and offer to do tasks that aren’t required of them. Whenever you see them around they try to chat with you. You’re just coworkers, you don’t want to be their friend. What an inconvenience to tell them how your day went every single time you see them outside work. Are you happy they got promoted? Do you think they’re qualified? Or would you rather someone you get along with better - people who contradict you less - earn an award, present an A+ project, get promoted, get into a happy relationship, get accepted into their dream school, enjoy the same thing as you? I am not perfect. I contradict myself. I contain multitudes. So, I know that everyone contains multitudes, contradictions. Multitudes of contradictions even. So while I am sometimes frustrated, abrasive, angry, jealous, annoyed, upset, offended, argumentative, or contradictory, I make an effort to think about the multitudes of others. So I have a multitude of opinions on you. I have a multitude of opinions on people I love, like, dislike, never get along with, disagree with, barely know, admire, or collaborate with. There are people I am incredibly close with and love very deeply, but I don’t work well with on school projects. There are coworkers I’ve had who were very reliable and always friendly to me at work, but were impossible to talk to outside of our workplace. There are people who I barely know aside from following them on social media and I admire their accomplishments. There are people who have been unkind to me, and I dislike the way they’ve treated me. I find their words, actions, messages, rumors, mistreatment, ignorance - unfair. Yet, I can recognize, and must recognize, they are parts of them I find to be positive traits. Traits I would look for in a partner, friend, collaborator, boss, community. They are hardworking, passionate, fiery, humorous, sensitive, intelligent, creative, authentic, bold. In the spirit of every article, metaphor, analogy, symbolism, sentence within this article I have written, I must acknowledge there is no one particular person I refer to here. I am always inspired by multitudes of people and their many actions. However, there is usually one event that will trigger the inspiration of one of my OP/EDs. But it all connects. There are so many people, so many events in my life I have gone through that I draw inspiration from. It could be started by one small thing happening to me, one sentence spoken to me, one act of kindness or malice toward me or someone else I might know. It sparks infinite connections. Multitudes. Puzzle pieces. I examine them as separate events, people, words, actions, and then put them together to form a completed image. Every piece connects to another, so the puzzle can always get bigger. Like any puzzle, there are pieces that don’t connect unless there are certain pieces in between them. But there is always a way to do it if you look long enough. If you look for a different solution. Connection is always possible if you work hard enough to make it. What I’m saying is, I know that my unsavory traits are separate from my most easily digestible or pleasant ones. And I know this to be true of all people. So despite the way some people have mistaken one word, action, phrase, event, trait, opinion, multitude of mine to be my entirety - I still know that my negative interactions with them are separate from their positive aspects. Maybe not in every moment. That would be impossible. But when I remember, I take the time to separate the piece or group of pieces I don’t find pleasant, so I can admire the ones I do. If it is one small thing it doesn’t take much effort. A more complicated, contradictory person may take longer to separate. If I have had experiences with them that I have found unkind, unpleasant, rude, unfair, condescending, mean, or scary, those pieces can be overwhelming. They take over the positive multitudes. Sometimes all I can look at are the puzzle pieces they have shown me - the ones that make me feel less than myself - almost as if the imagery might leap from the cardboard vessel that allows it to be tangible. But there is at least one piece, somewhere, within their puzzle that would not contradict the shapes of my own pieces. There is a piece of them that aligns with me, if I take the time to look hard enough. The infinite multitudes of our personality traits exist all at once in every moment. Really I think any person’s brain would explode if you tried to comprehend every piece of someone’s existence all at once for every moment. Comprehending someone’s whole existence implies that you have looked at every multitude, and how they combine to make bigger and bigger pieces of that person until you come to their whole self. So there is no pressure for you to understand me or anyone else all of the time. But you should try a little harder to comprehend a little more. Take some time to separate your observations about me. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.