Lucy was required to write an essay for a contest through school. They had 3 quotes to choose from and they had to write their impression/interpretation of it. She did a fantastic rough draft and then I helped her edit. I corrected spelling and some punctuation (never my strong suit) and changed a few awkward phrases but that's it. I loved the outcome so here it is:
Lucy 3rd Grade
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
Confucius, Chinese Philosopher
This will sound funny but sometimes I like to look at myself in the mirror when I am crying. My mama tells me that is a funny thing about me but that she did the same thing when she was a younger girl. I cannot figure out exactly why I do it but I think it is about seeing what I look like when I am sad. I don’t like what I see in that mirror. My face is frowning and has red spots all over it. My nose is running and there are tears on my cheeks. It’s not pretty.
The other day my sister and I had a fight and we both said some mean things. I heard my sister crying and I thought about my face in the mirror. I guess her face looked like mine except for she has lighter hair than me and her eyes are a different color. But I bet she had red spots and tears and snot just like I did. Then I felt sad too. It was a worse feeling than a regular sadness because now I felt sad for making someone else feel sad. My mama called it a “double whammy”. I don’t really know what that means but it is bad news.
At first, when I read what Confucius said, I started thinking of a lot of things I don’t like that other people do. I didn’t really like thinking about those things so instead I sat down and wrote a long list of things my family and friends do that make me feel loved and happy. Things like spending time with me, helping me, playing outside and making my favorite dessert. All of those things remind me how much people care about me. After I was finished with the list I looked at it for a little while and I decided that Confucius only sort of got it right. We shouldn’t do things to people that we don’t want them to do to us, that is right and good. But I think an even better thing is that we should do things for other people that we would like them to do for us. I asked my mama about it and she said that was called the Golden Rule, to treat others the way you want them to treat you. To be honest I don’t like rules all that much but this one seems like a good one.
I took my list and put it somewhere special so I can look at it and remember to treat people in kind and respectful ways. I hope that I can spend more time looking in the mirror to smile from now on. Because my daddy tells me I have the most beautiful smile in the whole world.
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