Walk a mile in someones shoes

   As human beings we pass judgement, and we never really get the time to sit down and analyze every aspect of someone you just met or know little about. The opinions of others and what we hear, much like in the media affect the way we think, and creates a rather biased opinion. If you were to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, every so often it can change your perspective of how you feel and view them, but also how you feel and see yourself.

    In the play Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is a very wild character. Who shows vulgar humor, and a quick wit to the play. Throughout the beginning of the play he is ready to duel, and is always looking for an opportunity to fight. He taunts Romeo for being such an emotional guy, and encourages him to fight. Until the scene of his tragic and angry death; Act 3 Scene 1. During this scene Mercutio taunts Tybalt, and when Romeo is begging for Tybalt to stop, Mercutio is outraged saying "O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!" He is outraged by the weakness of romeo, so than Mercutio than decides to step up and fight thus getting him killed. While dying Mercutio now sees what trouble the feud has made, and curses both the Montague and Capulet houses "A plague o' both your houses!"

In this case he realizes how stupid this feud has been and in this perspective he walks a mile in Prince Escalus's shoes. In the first act of the play after a small brawl between Montague and Capulet Prince Escalus says 

"Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate: 

If ever you disturb our streets again, 
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace." 

In the book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night- Time".  It was discovered that Christophers mom, Mrs. Boone leaves him and Mr. Boone for their neighbour; Mr Shears. Christopher and his dad are now alone, and Mr. Boone experiences walking a mile in Mrs. Boone's shoes. He walks a mile in Mrs. Boone's shoes because he plays both the father figure but also the mother figure. In chapter 127 pg 53 an arguement between Christopher and Mr. Boone's happens. He starts to lose his temper and then grabs and hits Christopher; In the book Christopher tells the readers  "Father had never grabbed hold of me like that before. Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means that she got angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often. But Father was a more levelheaded person, which means he didn't get angry as quickly and he didn't shout as often."

The change in behaviour shows that Mr. Boone had started becoming more short tempered, much like his wife had felt. This could be a sign of the stress and pressure he feels when he takes care of Cristopher, much like the stress his Wife had felt. On page 131 Mr. Boone and Mrs. Boone argue and he tells her how he feels shouting  "I cooked his meals. I cleaned his clothes. I looked after him every weekend. I looked after him when he was ill. I took him to the doctor. I worried myself sick every time he wandered off somewhere at night. I went to school every time he got into a fight." 

This shows the stress and the role he took on of walking a mile in Mrs. Boone shoes. As the book ends Christopher forgives his father and starts to understand that what he did was confusing but he should move on. 

 Personal experience shows me that walking a mile in someone elses shoes is hard, but my opinions have changed on so many things because of this. I remember doing debates in grade 8, and I was fighting for the idea of lowering the age for a drivers liscence at 15. (In winnipeg you get your begginners at 15.5 or sometimes 16. When I got this topic assigned I thought "well there is no way of winning, especially against two other super smart people." As I researched throughout the process I began to find very interesting statistics, and I got really into the research. Later during our debate, I felt confident that our interesting stats, loop holes, and counter arguements to the opposing side would win, and surely enough my partner and I did! 

A majority of times we have a set of opinions on a certain thing or even someone. Walking a mile in someones shoes in most cases will help you understand through the perspective of that other thing or person. Once you learn more about them, you start to understand, and your opinions will most likely change.