Pat Boyle                                                                                

Junior Theology

Reasoning Web Assignment

           

Randolph had recently broken up with his girlfriend.  As he rode in the car with his friends, he thought about how boring his life had been for the past few months.  Nothing seemed fun anymore.  He was lonely, and the cold beer in his hand was a good scapegoat to reality.  Arriving at the party, Randolph was already three beers in, and was determined to hook up with a girl.  “All the girls are the same out here,” he explained to his friend Tony, “They all look good, yet I won’t feel obligated to keep in touch with them since they have no personality.” 

After about an hour into the party, Randolph saw his target.  She was a beautiful blonde girl who Randy had never seen before.  He rubbed his eyes a couple times to make sure it wasn’t the alcohol, but sure enough she was exactly what Randy was looking for, or at least that’s what he thought.  Randolph immediately introduced himself and made conversation.  However, he was surprised to find that this girl wasn’t like all the others.  She was different; she was smart, funny, and still insanely good looking.  Randolph ended up talking to her for the whole night, totally forgetting his goal to hook up with her.  Randy got her number at the end of the night, and he was so intrigued by her that he ended up calling, and soon after they began dating. 

            Randolph made a common mistake that teenagers often make: we stereotype.  More often than not we tend to look at someone and automatically assume that we know exactly how they are.  Randy completed the first four steps of the process of knowing in a single glance.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we can not fully know anything or in this case anyone, until we have completed the fifth step: testing.  When Randy tested the first four steps (perceiving, categorizing, evaluating, and symbolizing) he realized that his original thoughts were very wrong, and he was intrigued by his false assumptions.  From then on, Randy became more aware of the process of knowing, and realized that you don’t really know anyone until you know them.