Forgiveness by Haley

Forgiveness by Haley - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

When I was in kindergarten another kid pushed me down and broke my collarbone while we were at day care after school. Even at the young age of 5, it still made me very angry with him. I told my mom that I hated the boy that pushed me down and that he deserved to have a broken collarbone like I did. My mom was afraid that I would get in trouble at school for trying to get revenge, so she went with me the next day and talked to my teacher, Mrs. Hopper.
Mrs. Hopper was saddened by the fact that my collarbone had been broken by another kid in her class and that I was mad at him about it. So after my mom left the school, she called me into the hallway and had a nice talk with me about forgiveness. She told me that she understood why I was angry with the boy that pushed me down, and said that she would have been angry too if he had pushed her down and caused her pain, but that I should not wish for bad things to happen to him. She said that I should be the bigger person and forgive him for pushing me down. She told me that sometimes people are mean to you for no reason and that forgiving them shows them that there is still good in the world. After we had our talk, she called the boy out into the hallway with us. She told him that it was not nice to push other kids down, especially girls. She said that we are suppose to be nice to all of our peers and that violence is not the answer. She told him that he needed to apologize to me for being mean, so he did. And since I wanted to be the bigger person, I told him that it was okay and that I forgave him.
By the time we finished having our conversation, it was snack time. The boy told Mrs. Hopper that since he was the reason my collarbone was broken, that he wanted to go and get my snack for me each day until I was no longer in my sling. She said that was a great way to show me that he really was sorry for pushing me down. She gave him my snack money and sent him on his way.
When he left to go get the snacks, she turned back to me and said “See, being nice and showing compassion to someone who were mean to you can help them to be nicer too!”