Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

You’ve heard of the title before, you should never judge a book by its cover. I remember hearing this all the time when I was growing up. I would hear it on some of the television shows I used to watch when I was younger. They would always give an example of something or someone who maybe appears different than what we are used to. From there things always pick up, and the main character makes a concise and meaningful connection to the thing or person in question. It always happens.

I used to even be told the same by my mother when I was younger every time I passed a pre-mature judgment on something or someone. It didn’t matter if it was the video game on the shelf that I thought was lame based on how the cover looked. All the same, it didn’t matter if it was the kid that came to school smelling funny and dressed poorly. She always said the exact same thing to me; ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’

It was just such an odd statement to me, and I wondered why it always managed to convey itself to me in my life. I kept thinking to myself, why can’t I simply pass my own judgment on things? They are my thoughts after all, why should I not judge a book by its cover? I mean seriously, what does that even mean?

Well fast forward in my life to my adolescent years and I ended up learning that both the shows I watched, and my mother were both absolutely correct. I found a book that was and still is a truly amazing read even to this day, almost a decade after finding it.

Let me go into detail

I was in my first semester of high school chemistry and was still getting to know both my classmates and the class itself. I had a lot going on in my life at the time, and so adaptability wasn’t quite one of my strengths. So, it all started when the new kid came in and had an assigned seat right next to me. Instantly upon seeing him, I was intimidated and felt a sense of unease being the very solitary person I used to be.

I thought to myself, ‘this guy looks shady, almost dangerous even.’ If you could have seen the man at the time you probably would have thought the same. He was new to the school as mentioned, and a football player. He was burly and strong, built like a vicious Pitbull, and I felt sorry for the poor saps that had to charge at this guy on the field.

So, then the teacher passed us our homework assignments and I was reaching for mine and accidentally bumped him. Truth be told that was a lie, I actually did that on purpose just to read him and see what he would say. I was waiting for a volatile reaction like ‘you better watch it,’ or ‘seriously?!’ But I was wrong, and instead the gentlest voice unveiled the words, ‘oh my bad man, sorry about that.’

I was just absolutely puzzled. My high school was still full of hostility and a lot of fights would occur on a regular basis. But then here comes this guy, and I can’t detect even an ounce of evil in him, which was so shocking to me. I quickly responded back with, ‘no man I’m sorry, I was clumsy,’ and even still he came back with, ‘it’s all good man.’ But at the time I dismissed it as just one of those occurrences that happen and went on about my day.

Then a few weeks later I saw him again, and he came up to me and talked to me. He told me he saw me get off of the bus, which he also conveniently happened to take. What’s more, he happened to live five houses down from mine, and invited me over on Halloween for a little party he was having. I immediately accepted, showed up, and we immediately bonded over video games, talking about our lives, and a hot pizza that he ordered.

We became good friends, went fishing together, watched movies together, and even went out to eat frequently. Our friendship remained strong throughout high school, and I admired him as a person. He had so much ambition and drive and wanted to do so much in life and eventually open up his own engineering firm.

He loved cars and engines and had a lifted truck that he worked full time for during our senior year in high school. Him and I used to even race our cars together for fun just to see who was the fastest. We just had the absolute best of times together, and they continued on even to our college years.

We took road trips together and got to see a whole different sight of the state. We had parties together and were sometimes so intoxicated that we couldn’t even think straight. And the best part is, nothing has changed between us, and our friendship is still stronger than ever.

He is one of my closest friends, and him being in my life has truly made it for the better. I cannot even imagine how different my life could have been if I had never met him.

So, then it’s a good thing I learned my lesson then. I didn’t judge the book by its cover, and I am beyond happy that I didn’t. It’s amazing how life works isn’t it?

I mean I could have missed on an amazing friendship for life if I didn’t make the choice I did. And he knows who he is, so I hope he knows how much I value our friendship when he reads this. He knows I will always be there for him, and I hope that I was able to be the friend I promised him I would be.

Never judge a book by their cover, because you can miss such an amazing read within every chapter.