Wonder by Tyler

Wonder by Tyler - October 2023 Scholarship Essay

To be different in a world with small minded people, where society perceives typical as different or even extraordinary, says a lot about how one human interaction can ruin a person's self-esteem. Human interactions can be the bonzer thing ever or the most taunting. I once read a book called “Wonder” about a little boy who was structurally made different and people made it out to seem like he was a monster. This book was deeply impactful because it shows me how humanity views differentiality, and how we can use the ability to use kindness over evilness.

In this novel I felt how he was treated during middle school. It's similar to how when I was in middle school I would get bullied for not being of the social structure of a “boy”. Of Course this meant I had a lot of girls as friends or I didn’t play any sports. They made me feel horrible about myself because I was just being myself. The way August represented loneliness is how I felt when I would go to P.E. and never being picked to play.

Augie was a sweet boy in the book, but was treated so wrong because of his looks. He had a wonderful personality, so welcoming and all the above. As a 12 year old boy I had to grasp or fit in into what the other boys were doing just so they could like me as a human being. I didn’t feel comfortable anywhere I went because of how people would look at me. “When given the choice between being right or being kind choose kind”, This quote is very powerful and I wish I knew it for when I was younger but it heals a part of me where I was damaged. We constantly deal with interactions everyday and it depends on how we interpret these interactions.

I related this book to when I was younger because a lot of things this young boy goes through is very similar to what I struggled with. However these mistakes seem to keep happening to young children and they are growing up not liking thanks because of how they were treated. Will this cycle ever end, or will everyone require a book to help them heal?