Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Have you ever heard the saying "walk a mile in my shoes?" I think it is a very good saying. Do you know what it means? It means, that before you judge someone, you should put yourself in his or her position. 

For example, if someone was running in a race, and they did very poorly and came in last it wouldn't be fair to say, "oh, he's just a terrible runner." You would have to look at all the circumstances that made the person lose the race. Maybe they pulled a muscle in their leg the day before; maybe this is their very first race; maybe they are not in good form because something isn't right in their lives. There can be so many things that affect a person's life, performance and moods. If someone was very quiet at a party, you couldn't just assume that they weren't friendly. You don't know what is happening in their lives. They could be feeling ill, or they might have just had a bad experience. Nobody can know exactly how another person feels. Even if someone tells you what he or she is experiencing, you still won't fully understand what is going on inside the other person. Everyone perceives and feels things differently. 

To walk a mile in someone else's shoes is to try and understand things from that person's perspective. We are all shaped by the events that have taken place in our lives. No two people have gone through the exact same things. So, before you are quick to judge someone, stop and think about what it is that they might have gone through. You won't always understand why people do what they do, but you can try to understand and put yourself in their position. 

Hot and Cold

I notice that whenever it is summer, people complain about the heat, but whenever it is winter, people complain about the cold. It seems that people are never satisfied. I don't like the winter. It is usually much too cold for me. My teeth chatter, and my fingers turn numb whenever the weather gets cold. It is hard for me to warm up once I start to freeze. I try to wear layers of clothes, but winter winds go through my clothes no matter how much I wear. My feet feel like they are blocks of ice on a cold January day when I walk home from

school. I would not like to live in a place that had a cold climate all year long. I am not comfortable when it is too cold. I like the summer.  

Some people say that it is hot and sticky in the summer, but I don't mind the heat at all. I love to feel the warm sunshine on my skin. I like the freedom of not having to wear heavy coats and boots. I am the happiest when there is a slightly cool breeze that comes along to refresh you on a hot summer day. I could live in a place with a hot climate. I would enjoy that. Of course, when you are in a place with a hot climate there are more bugs than in places with cooler climates. I don't care for bugs. Where I live, it is very humid. The heat and moisture combine to make it uncomfortable sometimes. It is nicer when the heat is high, but the humidity is low. It would be better if I lived somewhere where it was hot, but not humid. That would be just perfect.

What I Like Most and Least About Myself

I was trying to think up the best and the worst things about myself. I think the best thing about me is that I am very friendly. I have a lot of friends, and they all like me. I try to be good to my friends. I don't often have arguments with people. I think that I am quite easy to get along with. The worst thing about me is that I sometimes feel sad. Sometimes I don't feel sad for any particular reason. I just get into moods where I am depressed. Sometimes there is a reason to be sad. 

I was sad when my pet frog died. I was sad when I lost my favorite baseball card. On those days, I'm still nice to my friends, but inside I feel like there is a heavy weight in my chest. I think that everyone feels sadness sometimes. I try to do things that make me happy whenever I get into one of my sad moods. Last Saturday, I felt a bit sad so I called up my friend John and asked him if he wanted to go to the movies. We went to a comedy. We laughed all the way through the movie, so that by the time the movie was over, I didn't feel sad anymore. My friendliness is my best trait, and my sad moods are my worst traits. I have to work at getting over my sad moods more quickly. Being sad doesn't do anyone any good. There is no use in feeling sorry for oneself.

If I Live to be 100

It is an entire century. Imagine all the changes that you would see if you lived to be 100. I had a neighbor who was 85. She used to tell me what things were like when she was a little girl. She told me what my town used to look like, what her clothes were like, and what her school was like. I used to enjoy listening to her stories. 

Everything was so different when she was young.  Listening to her was like having history come to life. I used to try to imagine what life was like for her back then. If I was 100, and I had grandchildren and great grandchildren, I would tell them stories about my childhood. I would hope that I had a good memory so that I could remember everything.  If I do want to live to be 100, I'll have to live a healthy lifestyle. Not too many people live to be that old. If I do get to be that old, I hope I'll still be mentally alert and physically agile. 

In my country, the Prime Minister sends a letter of congratulations to anyone who has their hundredth birthday. People who live to be 100 are very special.  Maybe in the future with better medical care and healthier lifestyles, more people will live to be 100. 

If I live to be 100, I'll have a birthday cake, but I won't put 100 candles on the cake.  I could never blow out 100 candles.

My Worst Fear

I am afraid of water. I don't know why I am afraid. I have never had a bad experience in the water. I just never learned to swim. I should have done that when I was just little. It would be easier for me to swim now if I had started when I was young. I will go into the shallow water, but I start to panic when the water gets higher than my chest. I don't like the feeling of not being able to put my feet on the bottom of the pool or the

lake. I don't like to get water up my nose. I choke and cough when that happens. 

My friends just tell me to relax and I will float, but I find it hard to relax in deep water. They keep telling me that if I panic I will sink. Most of my friends have had swimming lessons. Some of them are even lifeguards. 

They have tried to teach me to swim, but I think I need to go to a place where they actually teach swimming. It would be so nice to jump into a pool of cold water on a hot summer day. That would be so refreshing. If I go out onto a boat, I always wear a life jacket. I think it is wise to do that. Everyone should wear a life jacket on a boat. I would rather be safe than sorry. I have decided that I will overcome my fear. I will go and take swimming lessons. I have a goal. By this time next year, I would like to be able to swim the length of the pool without being afraid. It is best to face your fears and deal with them. I hope that I can overcome my fear of water.

Being a Princess

Sometimes, I think that I would like to be a princess. A princess would live in a palace and wear beautiful clothes. She would have servants to do chores for her, and she would probably marry a handsome prince. People would recognize her. They would wave to her as she drove by. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to be a princess. But maybe it wouldn't be so nice. Maybe it would be terrible to be recognized by everyone. Maybe a princess would feel like everyone was watching her. She would have to look nice every time she left the palace. There would always be people with cameras who wanted to take her picture. 

A princess would have no privacy. Even in her own palace there would be servants around, so she would never really be alone. If I were a princess, I would worry about security for my family. Sometimes, people who are in high positions are threatened by other people. That would be a worry. I'm not so sure that being a princess would be all that much fun. I think it might be better to be just a normal person like me. I don't have to worry about looking wonderful all the time. People don't follow me around and take my picture. Whenever you see a picture of a princess, she is smiling. I wonder if she is smiling on the inside, or just smiling for the camera.

Super Heroes

When my brother was very young, he loved super heroes. He collected plastic figures of all the super heroes. I think he had every super hero figurine that there was. He used to tie a towel over his shoulders and run through the back yard. He pretended that he was rescuing people. One time he stood on the roof. He really thought that he could fly with his super hero cape on. He would have hurt himself if he had jumped. My dad saw him and told him to get down. My dad explained to my brother that super heroes are not real. Real people cannot fly from rooftops. 

My brother was disappointed. He thought that the super heroes really existed. My dad explained that most super heroes were created as comic book characters. Somebody used their imagination to make them up, and then an artist drew them. My brother was not impressed. He said that he wanted to meet the super heroes. My father told him that he might meet someone dressed up as a super hero, but it wouldn't really be a super hero in the costume. It is hard to explain to small children that the things that they see in comic books and on

television aren't really real. My brother still pretends that he is a super hero. He doesn't jump from rooftops, but he runs around and makes noises like he is flying. I look at him and remember when I used to do things like that. I'm more mature than my brother. I know that super heroes aren't real, but I know that he is having fun and using his imagination.