As a teenager I have made a handful of decisions that I later regretted in life. I realized that those might not have been the best decisions I’ve made personally, but they seemed right at the time. One specific time was standing up for another student against a teacher who always picked on him because he was always getting things wrong in class. One day the teacher just went too far and proceeded to put his hands on him. I was fed up seeing this kid, this innocent kid, get picked on because he didn’t have an understanding about a certain topic. But me standing up just made it worse for the kid and me. I got kicked out of class, but it wasn’t like I was wrong in the situation. I wanted to be the one to stop the bullying because I was always told “do the right thing even when no one is looking.“
As my younger self I was always seeking to stick my nose in other people’s problems and try to solve it like I knew what was going on. The advice that I mainly gave made every disagreement I entered myself in worse than it already was. Another situation I just entered myself was an argument that I really didn’t even know about. I ran into the altercation and tried speaking about how this could affect their future, but they weren’t even about to fight until I said these words: “It’s okay.” They started having a brawl in the park because of me jumping in the conversation like I knew what they were talking about. I wish that I would’ve known that putting myself in other people’s situations that have not one thing to do with it was very worthless.
Thinking that I can change every piece of conflict I see just made things worse around the school. As I grew up, I now understand the importance of understanding the topic before I even get myself into the argument.
Sincerely,
Sean Brown-Coley – Whitney Young – DMSF
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash