It was a job that everyone wanted each Monday. Getting to take a zipper bag full of your classroom’s lunch money down to the cafeteria offered third-graders and older, at my elementary school in Louisiana, a brief moment to get out of class.
It was on one Monday, that I, as a fourth-grade student, got to do that most coveted task.
Wearing a white polo shirt, black shorts, and tennis shoes, I walked down to the cafeteria focused on what I had to do. I was totally fine, until the corresponding doors to my right opened, as a horde of middle-schoolers burst through to form a line ahead of me. Our elementary school happened to be joined together with the middle school, with those doors as the primary gateway. While convenient for many, it did not benefit me that day.
When I held my classroom’s zipper bag tighter in my hand, I froze as some of the 8th graders began to tease me.
“Hey, fat-head! Your head is SO HUGE!” the 8th-grade boys yelled as they laughed at me. Being in middle school, they did not have to wear uniforms, like I did. They teased me about this as well.
I stood there, as I began to tear up. Some of the girls told them to stop, and they did, as they then entered the cafeteria together. When they had all gone in, I walked in there as fast as I could, gave the zipper bag to one of the lunch ladies, and then walked back to class even faster.
I remember that moment well, even though it happened over 22 years ago.
To this day, I do not like huge crowds. Given the opportunity, I will often walk through crowds as fast as I can until I can escape them. I love music and listen to it daily, and you will often find me in a crowd with headphones on. For it is in these moments that I not only find comfort in music but relief from the fact that I can walk away from people, without hearing a word they said or having anxiety thinking they said anything bad about me.
It is a sad reality that so many schools, workplaces, etc. are places of gossip and of verbal and physical bullying. Just by going to school, going to work, trying to venture out into the world, someone who is even just slightly “odd” could be laughed at, mocked, or ostracized, even if they did not do anything wrong to anyone else.
In a perfect world, there would be no bullying, no gossip, or any form of cruelty done to anyone, like me, who is “different” in any way. Yet, this world, as a whole, will not be made perfect until Christ returns, and He forms a “New Heaven and a New Earth.”
However, until that day is here, we all have the opportunity to improve our “little worlds.”
We can be uncommonly kind. We can choose to not gossip over those who we may deem “weird.” We can educate ourselves about disabilities, handicaps, and mental illnesses so we can better understand those around us, be they at school, at work, or anywhere else.
In conclusion, we all are humans, with our own bodies, minds, and souls. We have the gift of being able to choose our words wisely. Our words will be remembered, be they good or bad. Let’s choose to speak uplifting words: to our friends, families, neighbors, and everyone who is a part of our lives.
Ephesians 4:29 NIV
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Until Next Time,
Jacob McGowen
The Adventures of A Warrior 