Allyson H
“This I Believe” Essay
12-14-07
As Accepting as a Two Year Old
Have you ever met one of those little kids who is always going up to people they’ve never met before and talking to them as if they’re best friends? When my little sister Claire was two, she used to be one of the worst. She used to go up to complete strangers and start talking to them. Sometimes it would be a sweet looking old grandma, while other times it would be a motorcycle rider with patterns tattooed up and down his body. Either way, Claire treated them all the same – like friends.
At first it just about gave my mom a heart attack when Claire would go missing and we’d find her off talking to strangers. But, now that she’s grown older and stopped doing it, I’ve realized that it’s really sad that Claire has started to judge people because of our differences, just like everyone else in the world.
In the human race, 99.9% of our genes are the same, and yet, we let that .1% of our differences make arguments, prejudices, and even wars. We should all try to accept everyone’s differences. I believe that if we could do that we could accomplish world peace. One of the main reasons we have wars is because people are unable to accept other’s differences, like World War II and the Civil War.
I know that it’s hard to accept people sometimes, but if you just start by not categorizing people into stereotypical groups and treat everyone the same, it will help you and the people around you to accept others. Some times you may even be joking about the way you tell people they are different, but it might still hurt. Because I have red hair, people used to call me “Pippi Longstocking” when I was little. Although the people who called me that never knew it, I would get so upset over it. I know it’s not just me who could get upset over a joke that separates you from others.
I hope that someday, everyone will be able to accept all of our differences so that we can all use our differences to build up a better world. Maybe if we could all be a little more like Claire was, life would be better for everyone. If we could all be as accepting as little kids are, I have a hope that we could have world peace and better lives. This I believe.