Let's Talk About Little Boxes

   As my first post, let's talk about my boxes, and then each week, we will delve more into those boxes and what they mean. Please feel free to share your thoughts on my boxes and yours. I want this to be an interactive blog. I am not the expert in these boxes, just the expert in my boxes and my thoughts, and guess what? You are the expert in your boxes, thoughts, and opinions. No judgments will be passed here. 

    For starters, let’s just think about any application we fill out. Of course, different applications ask about different things, but here are just a few boxes we expected to check.

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Race
4. Citizenship status
5. Income
6. Education
7. Marital status
8. Kids
9. Criminal Record
10. Credit Score
11. Home Ownership
12. Religious or Spiritual affiliation
13. Political affiliation
14. Sexual orientation
15. Addiction
16. Employment
17. Disability
18. Career choice
19. Personality Type
20. Zodiac sign

These are the first few that came to mind when I thought about the different boxes I have checked in my life. This is not an exhaustive list of the different boxes that society and even sometimes we put ourselves in. The question often comes to be why there are even boxes to check. I believe this makes life simpler for most people. If we check off certain boxes, society automatically thinks and believes certain things about us, whether accurate or not. It is an easier way for our brains to compartmentalize the large amounts of data that enter it every day. It helps us sort people around, and we often make assumptions based on the boxes they have checked. In some boxes, we don’t even ask people to specify a certain box, and we just assume they are in this box or that box. 

I understand the idea of boxes, but I despise them. I definitely fit into certain boxes, and I wonder if you do as well. But I never want to be defined by the box that I have checked. This is how stereotypes and prejudice begin. I try to live my life on my terms without defining myself by the boxes I check off. 

So In short, that is what this blog will be about. At least, that is my plan at the inception. I am a person who tends to let things flow as they will and to use my words, not stay inside the neat little box originally thought of. 

Again, I will mention that I know this list is not all-inclusive because we all are put in many different boxes and deal with multiple things, but this is just a start. I hope that as I continue on this journey, my readers, you, will share your boxes with me and open my eyes to your world. I also feel compelled to mention that this list is not in any order of importance but just simply how the thoughts flowed into my mind. I consider myself a free thinker (maybe another box I put myself in), but I don’t tend to stick to any scripts and just let things fly out as they may. This goes for my personal and professional life. Throughout our journey, you will learn a great deal about me because I tend to be an open book to see my worldview, I feel you need to understand what my world looks like. I hope that throughout our time together, you will also open up to me and share parts of yourself with me. It is through this open dialogue that we all truly learn to understand people and their experiences and learn to appreciate one another instead of passing judgment on what we do not understand. 

So here is to our adventure together, and let it take us wherever we are destined to go.