Opinions

Opinions are like advice- they are only worth so much. Some are worth more than others, some are better informed, and some are presented more civilly than others. Sometimes my opinions are ill informed, sometimes they arent worth much, and sometimes they arent presented nicely. I would like to think that a majority of the time I work hard to express myself nicely, I try to be informed, and I think that on some topics my opinion is worth the time it takes you to listen to it. While I dont have experience with everything I do have experience with some things. I know what it is like to make some of life's major decisions, and as conceited as this sounds, I would would like to think that at times I have made the right decision, I would like to think that this experience has informed my opinions. 

Sometimes in life you need to solicit the opinions of others. I remember doing this before brian and I got engaged, before I decided to go to graduate school, before we decided to move to dallas, and this summer before we decided to purchase a home. While in the end we were the ones to make the final decision, we took these opinions into consideration before making our final decision. We solicited opinions from people that were older, smarter, and had more life experience than we had. We asked people we knew didnt agree with us, and worked to understand why they didnt agree with us before making the decision. In some cases these dissenting opinions either changed our minds, or helped open our eyes to potential pitfalls we would have otherwise overlooked. After all these experienceI have a difficult time understanding when people make decisions without soliciting opinions from others. I have an even harder time understanding why people react so badly when people give advice/opinions (I even do this sometimes), take it with a grain of salt, smile, nod, and understand some people know more than you do.