Learning From Experience --submitted by Hilary


          When I was a little kid I was very shy. I couldn’t just go up to someone and
start talking. I will make friends with just about everyone now. In the past few years,
I’ve made some of my best friends by just starting a conversation with them.
          Like on the first day of sixth grade, there was a new girl who didn’t know anyone.
She looked like she was having a bad day at school. I asked her to sit at lunch with me
because she looked so sad and lonely. Now we are best friends and we always hang out together.
          My parents always tell me that you should treat everyone the same. Just because someone
is “different” doesn’t mean that you should treat them differently than you treat everyone else. You
should always show acts of kindness. This is how to make good friends. Well, it’s how I always
make my friends anyway.
          When I’m an adult, I want to be remembered as the girl who was always nice to everyone. I
want people to remember me as the friendly girl who was always caring and always willing to make a new
friend. I want to be remembered as the girl that always smiled. A smile can go a long way. If someone is having a
bad day, and you smile at them, that can make the biggest difference in how the rest of their day goes.           
           If you’re nice to others, people will want to be friends with you. Even if you think that someone is kind of weird, it is always polite to be nice to them.  And sometimes when people act like a pain in the butt, I’m always nice to them, even if they’re being mean to me. Sometimes it drives people crazy when you’re sweet to someone, even when they are acting like complete jerks to you.
             In the fourth grade, there was this boy who got teased all the time. Then, I stood up for him. Just for that, I got the good citizenship award. Imagine being teased everyday by the same people, for the same thing nonstop, just because you’re different than everyone else.  Eventually, I got teased by others, but I didn’t care. It’s not fair that people get made fun of, and then if you stick up for them, you get made fun of as well. That’s why I think it’s better to be nice to other people, and you should never follow the crowd.
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