Lesson Worth Learning

Self-centered, selfish, and bossy; that was me in elementary school. Among my friends I always thought of myself as the leader. I told them what to do and that they were to do it my way. Basically, I was a big brat.

One day, I noticed that one of my friends was hanging out with another girl that I hated. I had no reason to hate her, but I just did. I was mad that she was spending more time with the other girl. I decided to write my friend a letter saying that I would hate her too if she kept hanging around that girl. I put it in her locker and watched at my locker when she found the note. After reading it, she ran away crying. I was satisfied of her reaction when the girl I hated came up to me. She had a dirty glare on her face and I gave her one back. She then yelled at me saying that I was really rude. Then she told me that people hated me and walked off.

I stood there shocked at what she said. People didn’t really hate me I told myself. I tried my best to shrug the feeling off doubt, but I couldn’t. I walked back to class to my table where my other friends were talking. I sat down and asked them if they hated me. They didn’t answer back. A chill went over me when I remembered the girl’s words. At that I ran away my eyes watering. That girl was right; people did hate me, but I couldn’t understand why until I gave complete thought to it.

When did I ever let my friends choose what to play? Did I ever give them the chance to tell me something about themselves and I didn’t ignore or made fun of them? Were these people actually my friends, or were they the only people that could tolerate with my attitude? These questions changed how I viewed everything about friendship, and how I wanted to treat anyone and everyone in general.

I learned that all people want to be treated with respect. People want to be accepted for who they are and what they believe. Not to be called names or told they couldn’t do something because of who they were. I learned that I’m not the only one that can get hurt easily; that I probably hurt a lot of people for my actions. After that day, I believed that I should treat each other the way they want to be treated. Not only me, but also all people should treat each other the way they want to be treated.