A Big Lesson To Learn

By Gabriela Altamirano Pozo

Learning to leave the prejudices was an important lesson for me. My high school was one of the best of my city and also an expensive one. My friends and I had, in that time, a good economic situation and we belonged to the upper class. I always had everything I wanted and for that reason I thought I was better that anyone. Consequently, I had a lot of prejudices about other people, maybe with a different life than mine. But my good life came to the end, when my father lost his job. I had to leave my school and all luxuries that I used to have. I couldn’t assume my new reality.

After a time, my father decided to look for other schools, cheaper than the other one. When he found it, my brothers and I had to accept it, although we had to leave many friends behind. At the beginning, I felt superior to all my classmates, because I thought that money and the material things were the most important things, and they didn’t have that. The first year in my new high school was very difficult. I missed my friends and they always called me and asked about my new life. I tried to keep the appearances and sometimes I lied in order to look like everything was ok. But I couldn’t lie for a long time and my friends noticed that I was living another type of life.

With the years, all that I thought that were my friends disappeared. I looked for them but I didn’t have an answer, so I started to share with my new classmates, in spite of my prejudices. It was hard! I had to change my way of thinking, my wrong conception of the world and my stupid feelings about them. Finally, they resulted being excellent persons. They taught me that money is not the most important thing and stayed with me in the worst and best moments of my school life. My other friends never appeared and I knew that they said bad things about me and my family only because we had a change of life. Now, with all my school and family experience, I know that money and luxury are not important and people whom you may have prejudged, can be a great help for your life!