Starting right
I think a little bit of violence resides in all of us. I used to be very violent when I was little. My mother and sisters say that I banged my head when I didn’t get things I wanted and looked for hard and edgy surface to bang my head on. Sometimes it was difficult for my parents because they wouldn’t know what I wanted and I would go mad. I was too little to remember what I did but it is surprising to know that I was so violent. My sisters say that they thought I would become an extremely aggressive, mean and a hard to please person.
As years went by, I became less and less violent. I personally think that the environment I grew in was one of the biggest reasons why I turned from a violent to a calm person. My parents always discouraged any form of aggression at home. My sisters and I were expected to be disciplined and controlled. If I did something bad or misbehaved, my mother would say I was bad and that whatever I did would come back to me. I was taught to feel how others felt.
I remember one incidence when I was really small. I saw a black ant running on my mother’s feet and fearing that it would hurt her, I crushed it and killed it. Seeing what I had done my mother asked me why I had killed the ant and I told her the reason. She explained to me that the ant wouldn’t hurt her. She told me to imagine how the ant must have felt when it was crushed and how I would feel if I were crushed. She also asked me if I could make it alive again. I still have a vivid memory of this incident because I think I was distressed. I was made to feel awful for my actions and I could not undo what I had done.
Children are malleable and I think they should be shaped in an environment that encourages love and care towards others rather than hatred and lack of sympathy. If everyone could be able to step into other people’s shoes, I think the world would be a much more peaceful place.