The simplicity of Kindness by Kaylynn

The simplicity of Kindness by Kaylynn - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

High school is one of those places that while you’re there, you truly don’t feel like its useful. Now don’t get me wrong, without high school there’s no way I would be at a university now, I just wasn’t smart enough back then to understand its value fully. When you’re young, distracted and from my personal experience, still trying to figure out not only who you are, but who you want to be, the future looks like its far enough away that there’s no real need to worry. In all honesty, I never recognized the extent of how important the things I learned in high school were. It was in the years that followed where I truly began to appreciate the experiences I encountered that helped me grow into a better person.

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, now how many times have you heard that throughout your lifetime? Possibly one too many times yet when you realistically apply this concept to life it’s pretty accurate. What valuable lesson did I learn in high school? How to treat people and how not to treat people, it was really all a trial and error process as is with most experiences. Through my journey of self-discovery I enjoyed meeting new faces and didn’t pay attention to socially stereotypical concepts that different groups of kids were often boxed into by other kids. I’ve always thought people were fascinating in their own ways, now and then. But as I got closer to graduating I did develop that certain set of friends, we were all so much alike that the fascinating aspect of people that I previously enjoyed, seemed all too repetitive in my new environment. Through a process of slight conformity I began to feel challenged by the girls in this friendship circle about my light-hearted perspective of the people around us. After suppressing my opinions because I took a liking to the feeling of ‘fitting in’ something in me clicked. I started to miss who I used to be, I missed building friendships with the so called ‘nerdy science kids’ as well as the ‘scary Goths’. I realized in short that I had stopped building these connections in fear of what my new friends would think knowing it wasn’t something they’d accept. So I made a change, I began speaking out, I made it known that people are just people, ultimately we all need similar things, and we’re much more alike than we know. I chose to be friends with who I wanted to be friends with and I began to treat everyone I encountered like I had previously, like they were a person I was interested in knowing, that they were worth my time and my efforts. I started treating people how they ought to be treated, all the ways in which I had neglected to do for my senior year of high school.

The reason this is so important to me now is because people are the whole reason I am in college, the whole reason I work so hard at what I do. After high school I pursued my associates in Social and Human Services, now I am completing my bachelors in Community Psychology. To this day I am still learning ways to be open minded, non-judgmental and to treat people ultimately, the ways in which I want to be treated. Its been a long journey and a deep learning process but it began way back when (5 whole years ago) I was in high school. I am glad I was able to see where I went wrong while I was in high school, however, now that I’ve grown over