If there's one date that has gotten a load's worth of mis-interpretation, it's the 26th of December. Boxing day.

As a kid, boxing day, as registered in my memory, was a day set aside for taking out vengeance on all who open-heartedly decided to ruin my year; and that was a lot of people.
Don't blame me for this naivety.
I mean- this is Nigeria, and nobody's cares about boxing day.
This idea stayed with me for quite a while until, as time would have it, I got the right concept.
Boxing day, rather than being a day where aggrieved people are legally allowed to throw punches at others, is actually a day of love and sharing; where people get to open Christmas presents.
Sometimes, I wonder why it isn't called present opening day. That's a less fatal name.

One day, I stumbled upon an article online about mental boxing.
No, this does not involve punching people in your dreams or opening christmas presents with your mind via telekinesis. Mental boxing is a bit less dark and evil.

As humans, it's common procedure to have a pre-conceived idea about a person before even getting to know that person. Especially if that idea is a negative one.
Imagine, for instance, going to a new school and meeting new classmates. The human(your) mind, unconsciously creates ideas of what these people (classmates) are -even if that's not what or who they really are- ,and boxes up these ideas somewhere in your head.

"Oh, look at that fat guy- he probably eats a lot and has no control over it" (Box number 1)

"How about that girl who dresses oddly? - she's probably from a poor family, with a possible history of childhood trauma" (Box number 2)

"The really old guy in class with a not-so-smiley face? - Probably a dullard with anger issues who has repeated many classes in the past" (Box number 3).

By now, i'm sure you get my point.
We tend to store up all these boxes in our heads. Most of the time, these conceptions, are grossly wrong and unfair.
Of course, it's not always all negative, but the bulk of boxing up leads to a downward spiral.

The problem with boxing people up is that; apart from mentally crippling the "victim", it hinders any chance of actually getting the right idea of the person into your mind, plus you get to carry a load of false garbage in your head.

The longer a pre-conceived idea gets boxed up, the truer the idea becomes to you.
So do yourself (and the whole of humanity) a favour, and start opening up those boxes.
Learn to get to know people before tagging them as this or that.
And if you already have people (or someone) boxed up in your head, let the self-invented ideas fly out the windows, and give reality a chance.
Afterall, it's boxing day, and boxes must be opened.