Cari's Eyes are Open!

If you have ever met our youngest daughter, Cari - then there is no doubt you have been kissed and hugged by her. She is the most loving and caring person I know. She loves walking in the woods with her dad and looking at the animals, trees, flowers, and anything else that will bring her a smile. Her life cup has alwasy been half full instead of half empty. Cari has always seen the world through "Cari colored glasses". By that I mean that she has always looked for the good in people and trusts everyone to love her as much as she loves them. She never meets a stranger and is just as loving and kind hearted to an acquaintance as she is her closest friends. I knew that one day, she would see the ugly in the the world and our little innocent wide-eyed Cari would be gone. I was sad thinking about that day.

I believe that day has come. She was in class listening intently to someone present their project before the class. She knew that person had put time into preparing and was very focused on giving her the attention she deserved. However, there were other students who were being very disrespectful and it made her mad. She wrote the following letter for her review to turn in the next day. I was very sad when I read it because I knew this was the day I had dreaded...but I was also very, very proud of her.

Enjoy.

Every person in the world at one point in their lives begins to see the world around them for what it is rather than what you were taught it should be. There is no longer a knight in shining armor ready to kill the monsters that lay wake in the shadows nor does it seem that there is a princess whom is meant to live happily ever after. It is all gone, taken almost, just when it begins to feel that the dream is merely beginning. When we grow up we begin to lose the hidden world within our minds of what we had once called home and in a way we begin to lose a part of ourselves. Childhood is the beginning of your life, it is where you start to explore, learn, create, but it is also a time when some of the most life changing lessons are taught. It is in childhood that you begin to grow up.
When you are a new born baby, still baring the ink mark on your foot, you learned that if you cried then someone would come take care of you. However when you began to grow you saw that you had to ask politely rather than demand it. When you got your first toy you understood that it was yours but as you grew up you knew that you were to share what you had with others. These simple lessons were still being taught to us as we entered the unknown world of middle school yet it is in high school that these lessons seem to fade. When did it become appropriate to say hurtful things about someone who is different from you or even treat others with disrespect just to look cool in front of a group of people that you will never see again after graduation? When did degrading yourself to please others take the place of doing what was right rather than what others say is cool? And just who are these “people” who dictate what is cool and what is not cool?
The lessons that we learned as kids do not stop merely because there is a certain clique that you want with all your heart to be included in nor when you are faced with decisions that will define your character. You feel all of those lessons and more but it is ultimately your choice to do what is right rather than what is easy. Yes, there will always be those whose main goal in life seems to be to ridicule and embarrass you. Those people that nothing you do is right and that you will never fit in but guess what? Saying ‘I was the most popular’ or ‘every guy wanted to be me’ as either an excuse or as a reason for your actions does not work in the real world. The real world does not care who you were in high school or even in college. What the world looks at is your character, you morals, your integrity, and how long and hard you will fight to define them rather than accepting defeat.
So, when you feel the urge to laugh at someone’s mistakes or even take your sick pleasure from their pain I want you to think about this before you even open your mouth…why am I about to attack this person? Does this show who I really am or who others tell me to be, and is what I’m going to say worth their pain? - Cari Raymond, Age 17.