What, or who, is your hidden gem?

While I was initially torn between writing about the value of patience and my new-found hidden gem, I realised that I really wanted to cut through some would-be fluff and talk about a subject that's a bit more real. What does that subject happen to be? More like who!

Lily Allen.

Okay, before you blacklist my blog, please actually realise that she's only the trigger to this week's insight.


So, this week was the first week back after a rather misleading 2-week break from the ol' schoolmill and upon returning I, for one, felt out of the groove with it all. I consider myself the type of person that is able to carry a conversation quite well. Sure, I stutter every now and again and have a habit of randomly chucking words into sentences. But, quite honestly, I think I'm quite good with chattering away.

I'm sure you can imagine my dismay when I returned to school with this ability gone!

Now, being a 'Type 4', I have a huge affinity for being drawn to melancholy and sadness; being an INFP, I believe that it's massively important to stick to my values and beliefs. I don't believe that other people should have to deal with my negative emotions unless it's something that I think they need to know about, so I keep them to myself. And, not ironically, I put on a face. If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen me Tweet a few times on how I've been feeling real down.

My belief with being Matt is that to be the best person I can be, I have to find things that match how I'm feeling at the time. It just so happened that Lily Allen's music fitted my melancholy. Coming from a person that previously likened her music to 'junk food', I'd say that this change of heart is quite important.

Not only did her music fit my melancholy, but being someone that drags around old hurts like luggage when going on holiday, the humourously vengeful nature of her songs really stuck a chord with me. Though I'm drawn to sadness, I'm not to revenge.

So, imagine my surprise when I found myself foot-tapping and head-nodding to songs which I previously thought were like going down to Maccy D's! Being a [generally] healthy-eating vegan, the idea that I was now *loving* this 'junk food' really seemed like a 'polar shift' to me.


This, therefore, brings us around to the more spiritual/philosophical nature of this post.

You see, it really stood out to me how much my beliefs changed. How many times have you had your own values on something floored? Not many times, I bet.

I think it's so interesting how we can view something, or someone, so harshly when, actually, they're actually pretty decent. It reminds me of an old adage I once read which went something like:

"When you judge others, you are only judging your ignorance."

My request to you is as follows: Take something which you don't really like: a singer, a book, an animal -- whatever -- and google/youtube/read/interact with it for a bit. Actually immerse yourself in the singer or the writer, etc. and see if you truly dislike it or, rather, if you're simply being ignorant. In my case, it was ignorance.

My hidden gem was Lily Allen: Who's yours?