When I was a little girl, I always wanted to go to work with my father. It wasn’t because what he did for a living genuinely interested me, it was because when my father got around his employees he was a different man than the man that would lay on the couch watching Spongebob with me at night. The way these men treated my father, and likewise was something of admiration, trust, and most importantly respect. However, as I’ve grown older I’ve bared witness to the fact that respect is something everyone has assumed they are entitled to - this mentality couldn't be further from the truth.

Contrary to popular belief, you are not holy. You do not deserve respect just because you think you do. Respect is earned, it is gained, it is built up over time because you’ve treated others with kindness, with compassion, with the over-stimulating sense that they were worth your time when you parted the conversation. I run into individuals on a daily basis who believe that just because they were “popular” in high school means that you have to jump through hoops for them. Or men and women who treat their significant others like complete garbage because they feel as though “we’ve been together long enough, he/she knows I’m not serious”. My response to these mentalities is this - at no given time are you above someone else. You do not get the be a Donald Trump in a world full of working class Americans. You do not get to treat everyone like your punching bag because you believe you are the poster child for natural selection. I am a person just like you, and this world is already overpopulated enough so your 4 person ego needs to take a seat.

It is a struggle navigating through life, so I encourage you all to be a friend first. Lend a helping hand, be a shoulder to someone in need. Do not become a bully on your path to success, do not push others over to get further ahead.

& “Always stay humble and kind.”