Showing Kindness By: Ariella McClain (Age:14)

Since I was little, I was raised to be nice to people, even if they weren't nice back. My parents always told me to be kind, treat people who you want to be treated, and that if someone hurts you, don't hurt them back.

I was home-schooled for first and second grade, and I didn’t have many friends. Up the street where I lived, there was a school named Mountain view Elementary School. My sister went there for kindergarten in my second-grade year of school. She loved the school and teachers. She did really well there, too. My mom decided, that if she did well for the rest of the school year, I would go there next year for third grade. My sister did very well at the school, and I went there for third through sixth grade. In my third-grade year, I made many friends, and my still to this day best friend, Grace. But there is this one boy I will never forget, and his name is Jacob Woodum.

Jacob wasn’t the friendliest of kids, he was always grumpy, didn’t talk very much, and was kinda mean. He was in my class for third, fourth, and fifth grade. Jacob always sat alone on the hill, in between the lunch area and the black top. I felt really bad that he didn’t have any friends, so one day I decided I was going to introduce myself. He didn’t talk to me very much the first time, but I talked to him anyways. He was into Minecraft, and so was I at the time. I remember the more I sat next to him and talked, the more friendly he was to me.

On the last day of the week, the school had this thing called Free Day Friday. On

Free Day Friday, they would play music, put out play equipment they didn’t usually put out, they would make recess longer, and the teachers would come out and play with the kids. But like always, Jacob would sit on the hill and do nothing. Although my friends were dancing to the music and having fun, I sat with Jacob, and tried to make him have a good time.

I remember this one time I tried to pick him up and make him dance. It was so funny, because Miss C (my IEP helper) who watched Jacob to make sure he didn’t get in trouble, laughed at my attempts to make him have fun. Jacob and I would laugh too, but he would try to pretend he wasn’t. We both had such a great time together, and Jacob’s attitude and mood, changed so much as our friendship grew.

At Mountain View Elementary, they taught Kindergarten through sixth grade. In the start of fifth grade, Jacob had to transfer to a different class. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but I was sad he wasn’t in my class anymore. He started to come out to recess less and less, and I got kinda lonely. Although my friends were playing prisoner, I didn’t really like games with balls (mostly because I couldn’t catch the ball), and sat on the hill instead. As I sat on the hill, I wished he was there so I could to talk to him, and so that he could accompany me. One of the teachers told me that Jacob moved, and had to transfer to a different school. I was so sad that he left, and I wanted to cry. Jacob was practically my best friend, and I never got to say goodbye.

Now that I am looking back at this, I’m seeing that Jacob changed a lot through our friendship. He went from falling asleep in class and being mean to people, to actually paying attention and being friendly to anyone who talk to him. I still kinda miss him, and hope he’s doing well. But the point of this story was, that if you show kindness and love to the people around you, they might start acting like you, and can change. It takes time, love, and friendship, but in the end it’s worth it to know you helped.