There was this game I used to play as a kid called Telephone. It usually entails people sitting in a circle, and then one person whispering a word or phrase to the person on one side of them, and then that person whispers what they heard to the person next to them, and so on. The phrase is never like the original one, and the bigger the circle is, the more ridiculously far from the truth it gets.
This game was always used to show us how repeating things can cause all kinds of misunderstandings and trouble, which I know today just means gossip. Gossip is such a prevalent problem for me. It's a daily struggle for me, to not gossip. Sometimes, I fail and say something that I shouldn't. And it's wrong, and it's something that I don't want to do anymore. But, like any habit, it is taking me time and lots of effort to break...but that's not the main thing I wanted to say about this, really.
I feel like, right now, I'm stuck inside a real life game of Telephone. Except we're not sitting around in a circle whispering to each other. The reason it feels like I've been dropped inside this game is simple: they started asking us questions. Questions about our opinions on different fields, different team combinations, etc. And people started talking. Immediately there were rumors flying about who was going where and who their team was and all this stuff. And the crazy part is, there's usually some truth to it. Or, there was originally. But by the time it makes it through the whole class...sometimes there isn't (apparently, not that I have inside information or anything) truth to it at all. Kris keeps telling us not to listen to rumors, and not to think about all the things people are saying to each other. And I'm trying not to. But, I'll be honest, when you hear people talking it's hard not to think that way. Especially because they usually have a line of people they heard it from and at one point there's someone who's in a position to know that they "heard this from"...
But I have to keep continually reminding myself that life is a game of Telephone, and that I should believe everything, at least in respects to team stuff, is a lie unless it comes from Kris, Pat, or an assistant. It's hard, but I think I can do it. :)
