Explanation:
One of the most overused proverbs I’ve heard throughout my life is “Birds of a feather, flock together.”
So much that I’ve developed a strong resentment towards this proverb in my younger years because it has been utilised by many especially educators in making passing remarks associating and classifying groups of people which I find it discriminating. This is because I believe that there is always something that we can learn from one another.
Now that I am older, if you ask me about what do I think of the proverb now?
My response will be; neither do I disagree on this notion nor I totally agree with it.
The Meaning Of Birds Of Feather, Flock Together.
Birds of a feather flock together means people of similar interests, background, ideas or characteristics will often congregate or hang out with each other, people who have similar ideas or values tend to stick together.
I don’t totally agree with this proverb because there are people who enjoy exploring and meeting new people. Like myself, I spent my youths mixing with all types of people. I befriended anyone. The misnomer, the outcast, the physically challenged, the sportsman, the all-rounder, the geeks, the attention seeker, the “gangsters wanna-be”, the foreign students, the janitors... easier said, anyone.
Perhaps, I was taught at a very young age to not discriminate people by my mother that I acquired this character. She taught me a very valuable lesson.
One day, she was cutting the onions when she accidently cut her finger. (I usually stand on a chair beside her to watch her cook.) It was not a very deep cut but there was blood flowing from the wound. Instead of washing it, she asked me to look at it. I was puzzled and anxious.
"Why don’t you quickly wash your wound?” I asked.
“Son, I want you to remember this. Each time you see another person who looks different or speak differently from you, do not make fun of them. Just because he looks differently or speaks differently doesn’t make them different from us. Cause deep inside, we are all the same.
His blood, your blood, my blood is of all the same colour; which is red.”
While others only congregate within their group, I continued making friends with everyone. I realised all of them have their own strengths despite the different backgrounds or physiques. And all of them faces different challenges which made me conclude that we are all not different after all.
Today, still being the person who I am, I connect with people easily. My advice is ; Be sincere and honest. Cause when you are sincere, any negative auras or hidden intentions of the person you are interacting with, can be felt. This will help you to make decision better.
You Are The Average Of Five Person.
Surround yourself with people who will have and create positive impact on you.
For myself, (and my group of close friends) our intellect needs to be stimulated.
If we are surrounding ourselves with people who never ask us tough, thought-provoking questions, we will never be living up to our full potential to conceptualize those answers.
That's not to say every conversation must be about Hard Topics such as politics, philosophy or quantum physic, but if we only hang out with our current friends to discuss on How I Met Your Mother, it might be time to consider whether you're getting enough intellectual stimulation out of those interactions.
Honestly, seek out to those who provoke slightly uncomfortable thoughts and challenge your intellectual; don't take verbal sparring to heart and don’t take mutual intellectual admiration for granted. Our friends really are our future. And the implication is that we don’t just need to be more deliberate about who we are spending the most time with.
In my opinion, most importantly, we need to be examining our entire network and its influence on our life. We need to know where we sit inside the larger network of our social community.
To a certain extent, we are NOT totally the average of the FIVE people you surround with. To be specific, it’s way bigger than that.
And just to be exact, We are the average of all the people who surround us. So, take a look around and make sure you’re in the right surroundings
