Seeing The Best In Someone Takes Time

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Seeing the best in someone takes time. You won’t see it on the first date or the second date, you won’t see it in the first week or the first month. You’ll see it in the moments when they think you’re not looking, when they think you’re not noticing, when they’re not trying to impress you.

You’ll see it after a long day at work, when they’re tired and exhausted but still make time for their friends, they still run errands for their family, they go out of their way for the ones they care about without showing them how tired they really are.

You see it when you try to talk to them about their problems and they brush it off because you’re having a bad day and they don’t want to bother you. You see it when they try to solve your problems even though they don’t know how to solve theirs. You see it in the way they extend a hand to help you when they can’t even hold themselves.

You see it in the way they fight for their voice to be heard, when they work so hard to prove others wrong, when they battle those who tell them they’re not good enough. You see it in the way they say they’re fine even though they’re carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.

You don’t see it in how they treat you or how many times they call you. You don’t see it in who they’re dating or who they’re surrounded by. You only see it when they step away from the crowd and become who they really are; away from everyone, away from the appearances, away from the pretenses and away from what people expect them to be.

You see it in the quiet moments when they rest their head on the pillow but keep tossing and turning because they have a presentation the next day. You see it in their eyes when they watch something on TV that moves them or how they try to act so strong in front of you when deep inside, they’re fighting their tears.

You hear it in their silence and in their long sighs. You see it in their pain and how they still try to make everyone else happy. You see it when they try to make everyone laugh as they go home and cry.

Seeing the best in someone takes time, you have to get to know them away from the noise, away from the crowd and away from the pressure of entertaining and pleasing. You only see it when you spend more time with them. You see it when you pay attention to the details and the specifics no one else pays attention to.

You see it when you commit yourself to giving that person a real chance — a chance to be who they really are, a chance to show you their vulnerability, a chance to open up to you because only then, can you dig out their raw and most beautiful parts, only then, can they trust you with seeing the best and worst in them and hope you’d still love them anyway. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Rania Naim is a poet and author of the new book All The Words I Should Have Said, available here.

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Writing makes me feel alive. Words heal me.

Keep up with Rania on Instagram

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