Life Lessons Learned From Middle School

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People can learn life lessons in two separate categories: preventative and experiential. The former may be an explanation from someone, a self-enlightening moment, or personally seeing the mistakes that people make. The latter is exactly what it sounds like, a life lesson learned in the trenches. The preventative bracket is comforting and usually there is no big embarrassment or consequence. These are life lessons that just so happen to be taught without the need for a consequence or a radical moment. However, the experiential branch, for the most part, is not so forgiving. These are life lessons, pardon the cliché, that are learned the hard way. This way of formation may be more burdening but the lesson will usually stick much better. Lessons…show more content…
The lesson I learned falls under the experiential umbrella. In elementary school, I was a fun-loving kid. I was very social and I enjoyed spending time with my classmates. I thought of myself as a nice person, and someone that could get along with others. I had a lot of friends so there was no reason to doubt this. However, as middle school rolled around, things changed a little. Middle school is a strange time where everyone is trying to get their social bearings and simply fit in. It’s a time of crucial personal and social development, yet this progress can be halted very quickly. Most middle schoolers do not have an idea about their identity or a confidence in their beliefs. Even most high schoolers and some adults do not have those things deeply rooted within them. Without a sense of self-worth, it only takes one snide comment to destroy the confidence of someone, especially a middle school aged kid. One common method to go about boosting one’s own self confidence is by making someone else feel worse about themselves. This is the classic middle school conundrum.…show more content…
Everyone one knows it, the golden rule. This phrase is so overused that the meaning has become lost. If this rule were to be followed, in theory, the world would be a great place and everyone would be polite and get along. The fact that this saying has become so cliché is honestly a tragedy. The golden rule is essential for collaboration and meaningful connections with others. The overuse of this expression changed the method of truly learning this lesson from preventative to experiential. I had heard this group of words so much that it lost its meaning. I would just think, “Yeah yeah, of course I should do that,” but then I would never really grasp and implement that way of thinking into observable action. Basically, being kind and having compassion for others were tiny voices that could not be heard through the walls of derisive speech. As a disclaimer, I am painting a very bleak image of my middle school self. I was not a bully who beat up smaller children for their lunch money. I just had not grasped the golden rule. I was careless with my speech and I failed to build others up with my words and actions. I did not encourage others or make meaningful connections with friends and acquaintances. I was not representing God or the way I was raised in the best possible manner. On that cloudy day where the girl revealed how poorly I made her feel changed the course of my social life forever. I truly held onto the principle of the

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