Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Devra Parker
Judgment: Living in a Community
By: Jessica Shepherd
12th grade
Com-mun-ity? Community? What is it? What does it mean? Well I’m no walking encyclopedia so I googled it on the Internet and found that it means: a group of people who interact and share a living environment. The community in each of our lives has changed who we are and what we are going to become in the future. I feel that the community can have too much impact on the way people think, act and talk to each other. We aren’t born hating each other; the society that we live in has to have something to do with it.
The world that we all live in is a very materialistic one. Everything is about what kind of car we drive, what name brand we are wearing, how much money we make and what neighborhood we live in. Nobody who makes well over $100,000 a year is going to talk to a person who only makes $25,000 a year. Why? Simply because the first person thinks he/she is better than the second person! That is not the way it should be! The first person should get to know the other person before…conclusions are made.
The national community isn’t much better, but people are more worried about how to become a millionaire overnight and who’s to be blamed if they don’t make it. Money, money and more money is the first thought that many Americans have [each] morning. Many people lie and cheat to get money. Even the so-called “role model” does it. If you turn on the T.V. there are so many celebrities backstabbing each other to get more movie deals. It’s even in sports; the big star athletics are taking drugs to be one step in front of everyone else, so they [can] get more advertising deals. Whatever happened to money can’t buy happiness?
In my small town community, it’s mainly about who makes a lot of money. Everyone is too good for everyone else and who can start the most drama about other people’s lives. In this town we don’t care who the person is as a person, but how does everyone think about that person. Rumors here are more likely to start than a fist fight, but do you know what that can do to a person’s esteem? Look at me! My mom doesn’t make as much as everyone else and she is a single parent. She doesn’t give me everything that I want, only the basics. People look down on her. Even some others look down on me because I have a job, buy all the things I want and pay my own bills. Especially the high scholar does this because Mommy and Daddy don’ give me everything. I know that when I get into the real world I will be better off because I have already practiced paying for bills and making the most of my money.
Another thing that is wrong with my town is religious hypocrisy. The hypocrites don’t do what they teach and look down on me for doing thing my way. I’m not going to let someone, who I don’t even know, tell my how to run my life and I’m not afraid to tell them so. It’s true they have the right to freedom of religion but what about my free speech and the right to live my life my way?
My family is a whole other story. Well, there are some that I get along with, but only a few of my aunts and uncles. I have an uncle, who is like my dad, but he’s not skinny and people turn up their noses at him. That make me so mad; they don’t even know that he is the shoulder that I cry on. They only see what they want to see. My other family members want to tell me what to do with my life and they always try to be my other parent. I hate that!!! I won’t listen to them so why do they try?
I’m part German and part Irish; maybe that is why I get…mad…eas[ily]. I know for a fact that my ancestors had it…much harder than I do. If everyone was to wear the same thing, we would all be the same. I think if we all got rid of the entire outside look and had to see what is in the inside, and then there would not be all of this hatred. Then truly, world peace could happen and perhaps the essence of real community could appear.
The…times are changing. With every breath we take, we change. As I sit here, knowing that I will change with the world and then pass my changes on to other people but will you?