I was sitting down in my history/language class at the start of the 8th grade with a stubborn and uneducated mind. I heard a loud voice at the back of the room and turned back to see what was up. A classmate of mine was exclaiming her political views and expressing why “X (don’t remember the names) is better than Y”. I immediately recognized her, someone who I had had several disagreements with before simply because our political views were about as similar as night and day. I judged her for not agreeing with me, and wondered why she wouldn’t understand where I was coming from. I thought, “Who are you to be so loudly asserting your beliefs to the class?”, and questioned how she had the confidence to talk about different views as if they were “wrong” or “right”. I judged her for stating the facts of one side and not the other, making me feel as though I was less of a person for believing otherwise. As the class continued and our teacher Mrs. Hadjis talked about different presidents impacts on the country, my enemy peer had added in more information about politics. I judged her for being “wrong”, and for being convinced of things that I wasn’t. 

It was at that moment that I had learned a lesson I value to this day. “What was wrong about her disagreeing with me?” I questioned. I finally understood that in life everyone was different, and I had no right to judge her for her political views, nor her way of expressing them. I realized that being irritated about inconsistent ideas among one another was the wrong approach. My classmate had taught me acceptance that day. That it didn’t matter if we disagreed or preferred different political figures, because the important thing is that we can accept and honor our differences. 

I will forever remember that day and that classmate who taught me an unexpected but much-needed lesson. A lesson that I intend to practice on a day to day basis for the remainder of my life. I left that classroom with an opened mind and a more accepting heart.