A lesson I've had to learn the hard way in this past week or so is that critics are going to critique. Whether it's my English 3 Honors teacher critiquing my most recent essay (rather harshly I must add,) or the guy that sits next to me in my study hall period criticizing "Emmaturity." Everyone is a critic, but are we all doing our best to criticize in the best way possible?
In my eyes, criticism should be constructive criticism. What is constructive criticism? It's certainly not just telling someone everything they've done wrong. If one only sees what they're doing wrong, they have no idea how to improve. An example of this is when my English teacher this week, scribbled her messy cursive all over my essay. When she called me over, she could only tell me what I did wrong in my essay, and failed to tell me how to improve. So what now? I suppose I must just wing-it and try my best to do better. However, this could've gone much different. When my teacher passed back my essay, I could see some points I could definitely touch up, but as for the rest of my eight paragraphs, I was clueless. If my teacher had given me constructive criticism it would look like this: "Emma, right here your sentence has a fragment, you can improve by doing...." or "You're vocabulary is a little dull here, if you use this word instead, or phrase it differently, this could be a potential college essay." You, are a critic everyday, be sure when you're giving your criticism for the day, you're giving constructive criticism.
The second run-in with criticism I had this week was on this very blog. Allow me to get us all on the same page here. I was being stereotyped a few weeks ago. Many people assumed I had no idea what was going on in the world at the time. Many don't realize I am striving to become a journalist. I brought this blog to some of my classmates, asking them to take a look. Upon telling them the name one of my classmates looked at me in an odd way and said "The name makes no sense, you're trying to be more mature than everyone, and yet your blog name is contradictory to this, because it's a play on immaturity." In fact, that is not the case. The name is simply something clever a dear friend of mine came up with, it then expanded to more meaning: Emmaturity is my own kind of maturity. Seems impossible? It very well could be, but I believe we are all at our own levels of this thing called maturity, that's where my name, Emma, mixed with maturity, created Emmaturity, my description of my maturity level. Now that this has been explained, my point I am trying to get to is, think before you criticize. Sometimes, you don't know all the facts, this making your criticism invalid. Instead, ask the questions in order to criticize in the best way possible. It's simple!
Finally, the toughest form of criticism, judgment. Essentially they're the same thing. But I'm talking about straight up, one on one judgment that we may or may not catch ourselves doing on a day-to-day basis. This occurred in my life just a few days ago. I was wearing this sort of, well, I suppose a robe would be the best term. Yes, I am fully aware that these are not the height in fashion, in America. However, these are very popular in places like Australia. Many were unsure of the attire I was wearing, and many made jokes. No, this did not bother me, because I've learned to wear what I like, and I don't care what others think. But, what about that girl who is insecure, and likes what she's wearing but others taunt her because of it. Another criticism I see is when people criticize people's lifestyles. Yes, I fully understand some do not live in the best way (drugs, alcohol, partying night after night, stealing, etc.) This doesn't give us the right to judge them, we are called to love them not matter what. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." This is from the book of John, chapter thirteen, verse thirty-four. We are commanded to love, not judge. My favorite Disney quote of all time is: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say nothing at all." This, from the movie Bambi. If you try, there's no way to mess that one up. Criticize, and/or judge, in a positive, uplifting fashion.
Criticism is something near, and dear to my heart, as a self proclaimed "journalist to be" I will have to experience criticism, and I'll be in positions where I must criticize others. Take these to mind and heart. Be a critic, but use constructive criticism, ask questions, and be positive.
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