“IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME”

MTV at my age? Yep, I am still of the age where MTV intrigues me and makes me appreciate how old I am. A new show has emerged on their network called, “IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME”. I had heard from a few friends that this show was interesting, so last night I took the opportunity to see it.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

According to http://dwp.bigplanet.com/serendipity/mtv1ifyoureallyknewme/ the show is “Like a reality version of The Breakfast Club, each episode of If You Really Knew Me takes place at a different high school, and follows five students from different cliques as they go through the life-changing experience of Challenge Day, a one-day program that breaks down the walls between cliques, and completely changes the way students view their school and each other. Watch the amazing transformation each week as new students open up for the first time and try to change by revealing who they really are, behind the cliques and the labels. Is it possible to change your life, and maybe even your high school, in one day? These students are going to find out... on If You Really Knew Me.”

I watched the show, the kids in it and the “label” walls that appeared to be taken down on Challenge Day. I thought what a great exercise for any group and am excited to see if there is any long term follow up with the schools involved.

It made me think of a recent meeting Clark and I had with a new associate. The meeting started off badly and then got worse. This person in about one hour’s time had placed many labels on Clark and I. I, of course being the more sensitive one was offended. The meeting ended and I felt I had been placed in a box with so many “mis” labels on it, I could have shipped to South Africa by UPS.

Clark asked after the meeting why I did not say anything and correct her “label” way of thinking. All I could muster was I did not want to get my blood pressure raised because this person was seeing “me” or “us” in cloudy glasses.

We talked some more and I realized I do not like boxes. Boxes are confining to me and to be labeled and labeled incorrectly drives me crazy. However, I realized I was not going to change this person nor did I want to. This person’s labels on me were hers not mine.

So it made me think “IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME” might be on to something and not just at the high school level. Maybe as adults we should reconsider our “labeling” abilities and find out about “If you really knew me…”

We might really then to get know each other on a more intimate level.