The darker views of some hostel visitors

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I judge from this period of travelling after having endured both short and long stays in hostels that in a hostel you can come across any type of person. However, in my experience most people who stay in them are generally open-minded.

However, every now and again I meet people with very cynical views. Such people can be in their early twenties or late sixties. Age does not seem to be a factor.

These views are pre-set and this illness within the person's thinking causes the person to hold that fixed belief across a spectrum of situations. For example, a person can get repeatedly annoyed, about being kept awake after 11pm because people are talking loudly in the common areas.

The very same person wouldn't ever consider the possibility that the people who are chatting in the common area have never realised that they are keeping another guest awake. Instead, this person has a fixed view that these people are like the rest of people in general who are just disrespectful and inconsiderate.

Their behaviour then becomes negative and obsolete, and fails to serve any purpose. They do not talk directly to the person or do anything about the situation. The person just speaks to other guests about this disrespectful behaviour, bathing all of their following discussions with other guests, in the negativity of this past scenario.

This group of people generally don't take the time to observe situations or other people's behaviour, or explore people's motives before reacting. They make presumptions about people and their behaviour based on their own prejudices.

I've recently learnt how important it is to watch people's behaviour in different situations and wait to know the true reasons behind this behaviour before producing an informed judgement, and especially before reacting.

I prefer to be the sort of person who wakes up each day and says 'today is a new day' instead of being the person mentioned above. Also, I prefer to share my time with people who wake up and say 'today is a new day' and with people who do not let their perceptions of yesterday interfere with their views of how today will be.

In short, I will not let the darker views of some cynical hostel visitors darken my perceptions.

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Photos

Quote from Jean Jacques Rousseau's openings lines of 'The Social Contract'
This is what my mum used to say to me in order to persuade me that I had limited choices in life.
My mum's interpretation is far from what Rousseau meant by this quote, but if we hold my mum's dark interpretation of this view that we have limited possibilities in life, then we will create a life of limited possibilities.

Famous quote found on Victoria Hostel wall in Genoa
This quote is the way I've lived my life up until now and despite aspects of my upbringing I will continue to do so. One way of doing this is by surrounding myself by others who believe this quote, and continually to act in line with my values and the above quote

Print found on Victoria hostel wall in Genoa
In my opinion the image above represents how we will live if we hold onto negative views about the world.