For the past two weeks, my AP Literature class has been taking a look at poetry. Now, I’m a big fan of poetry and am always up for analyzing and reading in between the lines with these kinds of things. But, upon talking to many of my friends, I’ve learned that most people don’t share the same sentiment as me when it comes to poetry.

This column isn’t about poetry. Although by the amount of times I’ve mentioned the word “poetry” already, it may seem like it. It’s more of a realization that I had about the multitude of perspectives in this world. Just take poetry for example. Each person has their own reason for whether or not they like it. Now, when a classroom can be so divided over something as simple as poetry, imagine the difference of opinion when it comes to more serious matters such as politics or the problems in our society.

After listening to the reasoning that some of my friends gave for their distaste in poetry, I can’t say that I disagreed with every single bit of information they gave me. I mean, nothing is perfect. So, there were many things that I could agree on that made poetry say, tedious, or, convoluted. But, at the end of the day, I still liked poetry and they still didn’t. It just goes to show that oftentimes, we’re so focused on ourselves and what we personally believe is best for this world that we forget to to understand things from various other aspects of life. I mean, that’s one of the reasons that our diverse society has so much to offer.

Each person has a different set of experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs. If we try to look at the bigger picture and understand where other people are coming from, it just might make this world a better place.

A place with collaboration, consideration, and compassion.