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This I believe. Forgiveness is a virtue.

This year in one of my classes. I became close to two girls who I thought could be my new best friends. Everything was great at the beginning. I sat at lunch with them, walked with them in the hallways, and we even hung out outside of school a few times. Although I knew of them last year, I never got as close to them as I did this year. But then things started changing. They started teaming up on me in class and making fun of the things I did or said. They would call me dumb or stupid if I didn’t understand something. They made fun of anything they would find slightly wrong about me. Whereas before I would be willing to help them with their homework; now they started going in my bag and taking it without asking. I was too kind to speak out against it, and my teacher always knew how to keep my head up. He told me they were just jealous of me, which I now deem to believe true. If I didn’t have my teacher to help me through my crushed feelings when these two bullied me, I don’t know what I would have done. One time, a boy they knew that I liked came up to hug me but when he did, his arm messed up my hair and it was sticking straight up. It was very embarrassing. He pointed and laughed at me. Instead of them trying to make me feel better and being there for me, they laughed super loud and made fun of me the whole time. Then when their words got to me, they said I was overreacting. I went to class upset while they spread the word to everyone about my agonizing event. When my teacher heard, he talked to me and told me I needed to rise above their cruelty. This is exactly what I tried to do. I tried to ignore the hurtful things they say. I tried to pretend their rude comments do not bother me… but at the end of the day, their words still hurt me. Some may ask why I lower my standards to be friends with those two, and I realize that I have grown to love them the way they are. They make me laugh a lot, but that’s about it. We are still friends even though they continue to make fun of me to this day. I have learned to look past their rudeness and realized that they secretly enjoy my presence more than I thought they did. The reason they come up with unnecessary comments is to gain my attention. I now know that they like me just the way I am. And for that, I will continue to grant them the value of my friendship.

This I believe. Forgiveness is a virtue.