NPR Essay Attempt

There's a series on NPR called "This I Believe," in which celebrities and average NPR listeners alike share three-to-five-minute essays about their personal beliefs. Anyone is welcome to submit an essay, so I've been wanting to submit one. I'll probably write several before I actually send one, but here's one I wrote today.

As a college student, my public school days are not so far behind me; thus, I remember well the rite that was the first day of school: finding classrooms, seeing who changed most since we last walked the halls, coming to terms with the very real end of that heaven called summer. I also remember well one particular tradition: the reading of the classroom rules. And it seems to me that every teacher – in whatever subject – had a rule that went something like this: “Show appropriate respect towards yourself and others.” There were other rules, naturally: don’t talk out of turn, don’t throw things at the teacher, no yo-yos. But I recall many a teacher saying that, in an ideal world, they would only have one rule: the respect rule. And then, some clown (I’m sure it was me more than once) would do an awful impression of Aretha Franklin. And I would think to myself that my one rule in an ideal world would be Don’t be stupid, and feel proud of myself.

But I have to say that I get it now. And I believe that respect is more than just a fluffy concept that our teachers and employers and pastors and saviors throw at us for the sake of sounding moral and heroic. I believe that, in a world that needs saving, respect is just right for the job.

I don’t know what I believe about what happens when we die, but for C.S. Lewis, the key to understanding the meaning of the universe was this innate sense of right and wrong we humans display. Respect, you might call it. And I wonder if, long before I decipher the universe’s grand meaning, I might just find that respect is key to understanding the people that surround me. Whatever happens after I’m gone, I think understanding my company on this journey is a worthwhile goal while I’m here.

It’s hard to know what to believe about the environment. I always land somewhere in between supporting animal rights and thinking that they must be made out of meat for a reason. But I have climbed mountains and walked by streams; I have swum in oceans and picked blueberries near waterfalls. And I can’t help but feel Mother Nature is someone who deserves my respect.

Let me confess that I’m easily the worst among any of us. I say much more than what I mean, I jump to conclusions about people. I litter, I drive a fossil-fueled car, I find that the garbage can, being much closer to my chair than the recycling bin, proves a better place for my used aluminum can. But as I write this, December is drawing to a close and a new year is approaching, resolutions and all. I will make my usual laundry list: write letters to people, get better grades.

But this I believe: the best resolution I can make this year is to respect my friends, my family, my earth, my soul. As it turns out, my career of choice is teaching. Maybe my classroom will only have one rule.