Deep Thoughts

Last week was Ribbon Week at Lola's school. Because I love any opportunity to read kids' writing, and because the PTA had some money to blow on cool prizes, I put together a little essay contest. They were given a pretty broad range of topics to write on: the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, violence, and bullying, or the benefits of self respect and respect for others. Living a stress and worry-free life was the thing to get them thinking about. And here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite quotes. Spelling, of course, remains as I found it for your enjoyment.

"Vandalism is not the answer to anything."

"Every morning my mom say's 'make good choices' (well, most mornings--when she's in a good mood)."

"The reason I say no to violent movies is because that's what is causing the violence or crazy people in the world. Everyone is crazy, but not as crazy as people who are killing and torchering other people it's just not right."

"Showing respect to yourself means: you would try to fix an F to an A or maby you have problems with taking drugs. Frist off it just causes more stress and you probably shouldn't even have tryed drugs or goten an F. But thers still hope. I've dealt with stress this year espesealy. I've been going for strait As and I'm pretty closs. But it helps to have people give me resspect."

"I have a good example of a person respecting hiself. My dad. He grew up in California and grew up in the Mormon Church. He said somtimes he would get offered beer and would refuse to even sip it. Later on in parties when they had beer his friends would always stand up for him and always make sure that he had an Orange Crush soda instead."

"Violence could make you look deformed if you got punched in the nose or in the neck."

"What are drugs? Drugs are things that do harm to your body. These drugs are: marowona, chewing tobacoo, sigorets, ext."

"Let's say your mom and dad smoke, and your dad is a pro-baseball player. He can't do as well with drugs as he can without."

"Disrespecting and respecting really does change how your life goes. So keep on reading my essay if that interests you."

"Do not tell your friends to hurt themselves, because that is a sign of de presion."

"If you take drugs it does make you feel good for a little bit but when you're out of your high you feel depressed and every time you take them it gets worse and worse. Life as you know it gets darker and darker your life gets caught in a pit you just keep going down deeper and deeper down down you go hitting the walls on your way down it gets darker and darker the drugs are just pulling you down deeper and deeper blacker and blacker darker and darker further and further just so you can feel good for those minutes. Tell me is it worth it?"

"If you vandalize people's stuff then you will feel guilty about it. You won't be able to sleep, you will feel sick, and you will feel like that until you go tell them that you vandalized their stuff."

"One reason to stay out of drugs, achohol and other harmful substances is that you can take any job you want (if you finish high school and go to cholege)."

"If you have a positive attitude people might like you more. If your positive you will get a good career. If your not positive you'll end up having a terrible job and won't have a apartment good enough to live in. If your stressed out and depressed you might end up doing drugs. You might even end up in jail or an institution for the crimanaly insane. You probally will need assistance doing normal things."

"If you cut back on drugs and violence we would have a better world. One way to stop your nasty adictions is to go to church and sit down wiht a precher and just talk to he/she. If you know somebody with any of these five problems go to them and help them!"

"There are lots of ways to get stressed. You get anxiety by doing disrespectful things. Like drugs vandalism or graphete. Then when you do bad stuff you feel scared. Scared that cops might catch you. Or your parents might find out. It would be easyier if you just did good things that make your mom proud."

"Drugs make you do bad stuff like driving when you have done them. It is so dangerouse not only for you. But for small kids you could hit. Just think about if you hit one of the kids and killed them. All cause you wanted to get high. Cause your selfish."

"Staying away from drugs and violence can help you in your life because being negative about things like saying your new seating arangements suck is being negative but while you are being negative you might be hurting the people around you because they will get their feelings hurt."

"Not all stress is bad, some stress simply means your human. But bad stress, too much of it, can lead to a horrible villanase ending."

"If you get bullied for a long time and then the bully moves, then it will reduce stress because you won't have to worry about when you are going to get bullied. So if something happens to that person and they can't do anything to you then you are going to be much happier than before."

"Around 250 people die a year from smoking. Do you want to be one of those people? I wouldn't want to die at a young age. I bet nobody wants to die unless they have the worst life in the universe."

"So what the heck, just respect yourself and others. Then most of your stress, anxiety, and worry will go away."

Words to live by, my friends. Words to live by. Overall, the essays were sweet, insightful, and expressive of the goodness that is inside these kids. They spoke about personal triumphs, fears, and commitments. I'm glad I did this. Now, on days when I'm wondering what I can be thinking to send my daughter into a den of lions, I'll think back on these ninety-two samplings of the good people (albeit horrible spellers) she's associating with and feel a little bit better. Also, I'll laugh my head off.