Week 1: This I Believe: Respect

 I believe that respect is something every kid should be raised to learn and have. Without respect you will grow up to be a person that nobody wants to be around. Success comes to people who have respect. 

Six years ago I had two players on my hockey team, Andrew and Eric. They were both good players but Andrew thought he was much better. Over the course of the season Andrew started to bully Eric to try and get him off his game. Andrew was playing great but our coach found out about his antics. 

Coach Jack approached the two players separately about the situation. Andrew denied that he had been bullying Eric and complained that Eric hadn't been treating him well. Coach Jack proceeded to then talk to Eric. Eric denied that Andrew had been bullying him but when coach Jack asked if he had been treating Andrew unfairly, he replied with, "No I don't think I have been but if I was I'll apologize to him". 

The next time Eric saw Andrew he apologized to him and explained how he hadn't meant to mistreat him. Andrew didn't say anything, just walked away. The bullying continued throughout the rest of the season and didn't stop there.

Six years later, Andrew got kicked off his new team for bullying. Eric is on a nationally ranked team with a full ride to college next year. Eric didn't have good grades so he got his scholarship on being a good person.

Being respectful isn't a hard thing to do. The kinder you are to other people, the kinder people will be to you. Success starts from being a good person. You will never be successful if you can't be respectful.

I was raised to treat others the way I want to be treated. When I say "raised" I don't mean that I was just told to be respectful. By "raised" I mean that if I was ever disrespectful to anybody no matter who they were and what they have done in the past, there were consequences. My parents were very strict on that because that's the way they were raised as well. I feel that if everyone was raised to be respectful not just told over and over, then there would be a lot more good people in the world and even crime would be lower. You can tell people to be respectful all you want but if they aren't forced to be then it just goes in one ear and out the other. I think the best way to ensure respect is to not only give consequence, but give reward for succeeding in being respectful. This strategy might not work as much for adults but for kids and young adults this could be very useful from a parenting and school side. If they have consequence for breaking rules in sports such as penalties and fowls, then why can't we have them in life? When the opposing team is respectful and gets an advantage they can become successful by scoring a goal because of the other team's mistake. Just like in life the respectful will be successful.

Image: Me (left) and Coach Jack Lowry (right) after playoff game win at UNE