What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in high and why? by Katie

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in high and why? by Katie - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

I have been attending Mount Carmel Christian Academy for thirteen years. Mount Carmel is a very small private school starting preschool through twelfth grade. With one hundred forty students, the average class size is ten students. Having smaller classes than a public school means less variety of friends and so conflict between one another seems to happen more often and everyone is choosing sides.

Since I have to be around the same classmates every day, conflict can cause a big mess if not solved immediately or properly. This has taught me how to handle the conflict between another person and myself. It is better to just go to the person who has offended me or I have offended them. Letting the conflict build up causes more and more people involved and ends up leading to bitterness towards the other person, loneliness, anger, and resentment.

Conflict needs to be handled immediately and with a loving heart. The approach I take to handling the conflict sets the tone for how the conversation will go. It is best not to make up a bunch of excuses if it is my fault. I just take the blame and do not make up excuses to try to make myself look better. When the other person wants to talk, it is my responsibility to give them my full attention and hear them out. I just have to apologize and ask for their forgiveness. After resolving conflict, I have a much more joyful and loving heart. Getting all the tension off my chest is such a relief and good feeling when everything is over with.

Conflict between one another will happen all through life. Learning how to deal with conflict will help me abundantly in life when situations occur. I will have to know to handle conflict between my roommate and myself in college if something happens. There will be conflict between coworkers at work.

Since, we are all sinners and we live in a sin cursed world, we will all have to deal with conflict and having our feelings hurt. How we handle the situation makes all the difference in our character and happiness.