I Don’t Think My Opinions Are Stupid
Click here for prompt.
Dear Anne,
I know it must be difficult for you to discuss your thoughts and ideas with people who do not understand you, or worse people who berate and belittle you, but I do not think it is a good idea to bottle up your opinions. I don’t think your views are stupid, and even if they were you have a right to share and express them with the world.
Everybody on earth has his or her own opinion. That is what makes life so appealing. The fact that we can debate or argue, or compromise and exchange our thoughts with others is one of the most incredible aspects of living. I think we run into trouble when we cling to our opinions and fail to see that other people may disagree with us. This ultimately leads to conflict because we refuse to let other people share their thoughts.
Opinions change as people change. As a young girl, you have an outlook on life that will be dramatically different in five years, ten years, or twenty years. It is important, however, that at every interval in your life you examine and scrutinize your thoughts. Where do they come from? How are they influenced? How are you changing? This dissection of your beliefs is in the end how you will grow. This is education.
I have gone off track a bit so let me get back to my point. If you have opinions, it is important to share them, because once they are out in the world they will be open for discussion. You can then alter and adapt them to fit you better. If on the other hand, you only keep your opinions to yourself, or worse only share them with people who agree with you, then they will never evolve. They will become stale and outdated.
It can be frustrating to view the world in a certain way and have everyone you know, tell you that you are wrong. It can seem attractive to simply not share your thoughts with anyone, because they just don’t understand you. But you are only doing yourself a disservice if you keep all your thoughts inside.
If everyone decided to keep their opinions to themselves because they were afraid of disagreements than where would we be? We wouldn’t learn anything, because knowledge comes from the exchange of ideas. Through collaboration, comprise and cooperation we reshape the world into a better place. We do not hoard our ideas or opinions but display them publicly and defend them when necessary and alter them if need be.
We must not be rigid! Your mind is fluid and in flux and works best when it is open and active. So do not barricade yourself behind a wall of your own beliefs. Allow them to be malleable, and you will see that there are others out there who share your vision. We are glad that you have opened up your heart to us with your diary, and we are learning from you everyday. If you had not shared the opinions of a beautiful young girl, where would we be today? What would we have learned? How were we to grow?
Filed under: General and
After reading this, I would like to share my opinions. I realized and understood clearly when you said “If everyone decided to keep their opinions to themselves because they were afraid of disagreements than where would we be? We do not hoard our ideas or opinions but display them publicly and defend them when necessary and alter them if need be.”
I now understand better that opinions in life are important but without it, we wouldn’t learn our mistakes like when you said, “If you had not shared the opinions of a beautiful young girl, where would we be today? What would we have learned? How were we to grow?”
If we didn’t have Anne’s diary, we wouldn’t know about the questions she asked, how she tried to solve it and how did she felt during the war and try to keep on questioning to herself about life, war, politics, etc. Really glad for you to tell your opinion, without this, I wouldn’t have learned.
I agree completely with you Hana. Without Anne’s diary we wouldn’t know about the questions she asked, how she tried to solve it and how did she felt during the war and try to keep on questioning to herself about life, war, politics, etc. Also we wouldn’t be living in the world we live in today without her diary. I agree about if people didn’t share their opinions we don’t even know who people were or what they thought about anything. I also think that if we don’t share our opinions we wouldn’t know our mistakes therefore wouldn’t learn from them.