Trust is a gift that you give to someone who has rightfully earned it, but trust is a double-edged sword, as the same trust that can be a blessing can also be a curse. In my past I trusted the wrong people, I screwed up and did that; I refuse to blame those I trusted as it was my own willful choice to do so. It’s important to give trust to those who earn it and who have the best possible intentions at heart in whatever they are doing. 

Trusting the wrong people can lead to jail, getting killed, taken advantage of, it can lead you down paths that are self-destructive and or harmful to other people. Your trust should be kept sacred and reserved for those who genuinely deserve it, it should be guarded and protected; treated as a gift given to the select few. Though trust has layers…

You can trust someone to a certain degree, you can trust people emotionally, or physically, or even monetarily. You can trust someone’s work ethic or their word; trust can and should be selective on an individual basis. Giving too much trust to someone unchecked is almost always detrimental, but giving a degree of trust based upon the individual’s actions, is often better.

The Japanese have a saying that all people wear three masks, one that they show to strangers and at work, one reserved for family, friends, people they know and those they care about, and one that only they know, which houses their deepest thoughts and feelings. This is an important distinction because it delineates the degree of trust one gives to different sub-sects of people in their lives. In each of the three “Masks,” you can further break down who you trust and what you trust them with/in.

I personally learned these lessons the hard way, I gave my trust away to many people with bad intentions and it led me down destructive routes, both to myself and to others. I was indoctrinated, used as a pawn against my fellow human beings, and led to believe I had insurmountable hordes of enemies of those who were different from me in the slightest. In the end, it was all my fault for giving those people my trust, when it was undeserved. 

I am one of the few lucky ones… though I have been hurt, in countless fights, stabbed, cut, shot once in the shoulder, I am alive, and I don’t even have so much as a parking ticket on my legal record. Many were not so lucky, and it is due to their misplaced trust in others… do not make their mistakes.