2004 Get the WORD Out! Contest Entry: Ages 10-13

Iesha Prude, 13

What Respect Is To Me

Respect is the most precious thing a person can have for themselves and others. People say that in order to get respect you have to give it. In my opinion, I think peoples should respect others not just based on rather they respect you but just to be courteous.

I've learned from experience that even if someone older than you doesn't respect you, it doesn't mean you can't respect them. Not only do you have to respect yourself as well as others you have to respect people with disabilities.

For instance, people with epilepsy need and want to be treated with the same respect as you would give anybody else, but people can be so cruel that they would laugh when they see a person with disabilities instead of helping them.

As for me, I think respect is love, I think its kind, I think being courteous, and I know that if you don't respect yourself you can't respect anybody else and if you don't love yourself, you don't love anybody else. If you want to be successful, you have to put up with disrespectful people in order to make it in life. I don’t know why that is, it's just the way it is. This is what I think respect is to me and should be to everyone else.