Respect by Sabra

Respect by Sabra - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

I learned respect from my mother, my father, the Bible, and those around me. It was an important part of my life growing up. Children are taught to respect their elders, their parents, God, and their teachers. If they did not respect, they would get in trouble. Not getting dessert is a pretty big motivator for a sugar-loving child. Respect was learned and kept easily. As an adult, respect means something a little different.
Respect as a child was easy. I had few qualms with those around me, little to complain about, and I did not care for the problems the rest of the world tried to shove into my accepting, kind bubble. Friends were friends, after all, the whole world was made of potential friends. As I grew, however, things changed. I had reasons to fight, all of a sudden, and reasons to voice my opinion. Listening to others became harder and being friendly with them despite differences in opinions also became harder. I fought with friends over childish things that were so important at the time, and often mistreated a friend due to these fights. They did so right back to me. We got over it. It was still simple because grudges were hard to hold in a world as important and small as ours. Though my world, due to traveling, was bigger than most, the concept remained the same, and I had no reason to disrespect someone I would inevitably run into again.
Eventually, however, I grew until I was no longer a child. I grew to the point where I understood what disrespect meant. It became something more than simple obedience a child owed an adult. Suddenly, I owed respect to peers who, previously, would have been above me purely because of age. We spoke as peers and listened as peers and my childish conduct only pushed them away. Staying silent in the face of arguments, rolling my eyes, walking away, performing acts without another’s input when it directly affected them became beneath me in a way it was not anymore. I found people angry at me for treating them like this, but it was only when a friend of mine, a previous teacher, took me aside that I finally saw it for what it was. Disrespect. Had I respected these people, I would not have so easily thrown them away. It was not a simple matter of arguments and angry discussions but the fact that I refused to hear them out. It was not respectful and I had caused her pain because of my actions. In a respectful conversation, she and I communicated these facts and came to good resolutions.
Besides deepening an important relationship, this opened my eyes to a new world that functioned best when respect was shared between people. Of course, not all people were treated such or responded such, as I had always known, sometimes on a deep and personal level. However, my life functioned best when communication was open and respect was mutual, as I learned that day.
This teacher revealed an important aspect of adulthood I simply had not fully encountered before. As a child, respect was always there but spoken of differently than it is as an adult. It became to me, as it is to her, my teacher, something of the utmost Importance, and remains so today. As I continue to grow, I aim to respect all peoples, cultures and opinions, without which we would not flourish in this world. I thank that teacher every day for the lesson of respect she taught me.