R-E-S-P-E-CT…Tell me what it means to be R-E-S-P-E-C-T-E-D.

R-E-S-P-E-CT…Tell me what it means to be R-E-S-P-E-C-T-E-D. Now who hasn’t heard that song right? Well, just because we’ve heard it, doesn’t me we do it. Most people have no respect for others, and I find that very rude. We’ve all heard that we have to respect our elders and to respect our mom and dad and our big brother or sister. But there is someone in my life that I have full respect for and means a whole lot to me. And that is my grandmother. I don’t remember even one time when I disrespected her. And I’m sure glad I never did because I wouldn’t have liked the consequences either. My grandmother has taught me many things because I spent most of my life with her since it was just her and me and my mom for a few years. But I really know what respect is and how I learned it.

My grandmother taught me many things. But one of the most important one was respect. When ever I tried to speak up to my mother or I tried to do anything that was way against my education, she gave me this look that’s indescribable, and that was all it took for me to just shut up. I don’t remember questioning those looks either. She told me to never speak up; to never shout out, and to never do anything that was out of proper behavior. She was a manner addict. She caught every move I made wrong. But she didn’t scream at me because she didn’t believe that I would learn that way. When I made the same mistake twice, then that’s when I got it. But of course my grandmother let me have fun. She wasn’t like someone you had to be scared of.

Whenever my family and me had company over, she would just act normally at what they did. She wouldn’t freak out just right then in front of them. But when everyone had long been gone, she would sit down with my mother and talk all about how these people have no manners and this and that and it was gossip that I just couldn’t stay awake to hear it all. Even the slightest thing bothered her. You would never see my grandma doing such a thing like wiping herself with the sleeve of her jacket or burping or screaming. She always said yes and no, and she always talked in a low voice. She would have proper language and big words, very sophisticated always for a woman her age. When she and I were alone with my mother sometimes, she would act cuddly with us and tell us many things and play with me, and she read me bed time stories. I think she was the best person in the world.

When my motherand I came to the U.S, I remember scratching the floor of the airport and drowning it with tears because I had to leave her. I told my mother many times that I wanted to go back and never return. I just wanted to live with my grandmother, and it would all be fine. She taught mostly all I know because my mom was always at work. She drove me to school, she ironed my clothes, picked me up, and helped me with homework, cooked for me, and on top of that, she had a job. She was my second mother. She was super grandma.

So to sum it all up, my grandma is one of the most important people in the world. I respect her a lot because of everything she did for me when I was a kid. She never left me, she helped me through everything, and she was my guide. And to disrespect someone who has been there for you when you needed her? That sounds like such a crazy idea to me!

By I. S., a middle school student