Trust me; I trust you

One night, after viewing a late showing of Rocky Balboa, my roommates discovered the joy in trying all the youthful mind games on me. Of course I enjoyed relaxing and meditating, but I as well as all of my roommates were surprised at how well these silly games worked on me. I found the whole thing quite hilarious, but I was quite surprised when someone exclaimed that I trusted other people easily. I had talked to another friend about trusting people just a week or so before, and the recurrence of the topic set me to thinking. I brought it back up a little while later and one of my roommates assured me that the reason I was easily influenced was because I was 'open' to things. I can understand how that works, but I continued thinking about trust and wondering if I'm too trusting of other people.

A quote that comes to my mind when thinking about trust (this is weird that I actually remember this one, but I contemplated putting it in my graduation speech) was quoted by Frank Crane. He said, "You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough." How much I have thought about this statement, and I have come to accept it as my belief of trust.

Many times in life we are fooled- have the wool pulled over our eyes. A trusting person is the most likely to be fooled or deceived easily, but a true friend will not be unkind enough to test this of the person. On the other hand, not trusting a person enough can be the mistake of the person who is doing the trusting. Trust is key in any friendship, but how easily trust can be lost by either person in the party. Not having the confidence of a friend is painful, and having someone take advantage of you is hurtful. Therefore, Frank Crane was correct.

I am willing to accept what others may say making me a very open person. Personally, I have come to trust anyone so long as they don't provide me with a reason not to. But, if given a reason to distrust an individual, I know I am unwilling to believe them again. I'm positive my trust is hard to regain back. I probably won't bestow my acceptance on a being so willingly if they have already misled or hurt me.

Now, I understand that many will consider me to be a foolish idiot to trust in other people so willingly, but I have come to realize that this is the way to find out if the person is a true friend or not.