It was a cold, March morning. I didn’t want to wake up. Through my thin walls I could hear my sister crying over a recent breakup. “What a drama queen”, I thought. Eventually, I did get to my daily routine of getting my clothes on, eating breakfast, and going to school. The simple life of a seventh grader. Little did I know, that day would influence my opinions of others, from past to future, and change my view on everyone including a kid named Jared.

As I walked into school, I saw an absolutely unwieldy boy run into a garbage can. “What an idiot” I thought. Making it through the morning was hard with people like him, but my mind did not ponder on the topic for long for, it was lunchtime. My favorite part of the day. Casually chatting to friends and listening to middle school drama made my day more bearable. After I ate my sorry meal of a soggy chicken patty, I walked to the gym to let off some steam. I noticed Jared was in the gym too. He was the tagger in the game of “colors”. He yelled “Red!”, which was the color of my torn up sneakers. I began running to the side of the gym. I noticed him start chasing me. With my quick feet, I was able to run past him with ease until his last-ditch effort, a diving tag. He got me.

*SNAP* With a quick glance I saw Jared behind me with the face of failure. I noticed my wrist went from a normal horizontal position, changing to looking like a deformed hill with a steep slope. I began walking to the nurse with the thought of Jared in my mind. “He’s so stupid!”, I thought. The pain soon spread to everywhere as I went to the emergency room. They gave me the strongest pain medicine the hospital had, but it did nothing for what Jared had done. This compound fracture would lead to my first and unwanted surgery. I tried to think of things that would hurt me more then what I felt at this time. I thought of: being eaten by a bear, the stinging of one-hundred bees, being kicked by a horse, nothing. As the fast-moving anesthetics slowed my body, I remembered something that truly hurt. My eyes shut to a memory from fourth grade.

I remember the warm May day and the anger I felt after recess. A mean boy named Chuck Jenson shoved me into a brick wall as we were walking in. Instantaneously, I told the teacher what happened when we were inside, but nothing was done. My teacher told me “You obviously get what you want when you want it”. These words filled me with blazing hatred. “How could something like this go unnoticed!”, I thought. Tears were being held back like an overflowing river slamming into a dam. “Chuck is the worst person to exist!”, I had exclaimed in my inner thoughts. I remembered something through all this resentment. While looking straight at Chuck, I could see his face full of shame. He actually seemed to be sorry for what he did. The thought stuck with me like glue until I woke up.

After the surgery, I had a lot of time for thinking.“If Chuck seemed sorry for his actions, maybe Jared is the same way.”, I questioned myself. Once recovered, I mosied back to school. The first person I saw is Jared, just sitting, not being a nuisance. I didn’t see him knock over a garbage can and I didn’t see his goofy face either. Instead, I saw an embarrassed and apologetic boy walk up to me and silently apologize, “I’m sorry for everything”. The only words I needed to hear.

That warm March day created something great for me, even if it took some sacrifice. After Jared tripped me, sent me to the ER, forced me to have surgery, and waited for me to come back to school, I learned something. I learned to never characterize someone from their mistakes. This lesson has helped me even past my fourth-grade year. Jared and I have seen eye to eye since then and Chuck has become one of my good friends.