When I was in kindergarten, my best friend, Jacquelin, refused to tell me her weight. I was curious about how fast I was growing up compared to my friends. All of my other friends told me how much they weighed, but she kept up her defenses up and wouldn't let them down. Finally, I asked her why she wouldn't let me know something that mattered that little. And her responce was, "My mommy told me not to tell anybody anything about myself that couldn't already be seen. She said that as people get older, they get meaner." My mom had told me differently. My mom told me that as I got older, people around me would get more mature." I wish I could go back to my kindergarten self and tell Jacquelin that, for the most part, she was right.
As far as people go, they get less compassionate. When you're in kindergarten, everyone just wants to be friends. They accept anyone who wants to join and the most hurtful thing that anyone can say is, "Well, I'm not your friend anymore!" But everything changes as the years go by. People hold grudges, they find new ways to hurt others both physically and emotionally, and they betray those close to them usually for selfish reasons. Words like "stupid" and "butthead" become "faggot" and "whore" and it seems that hardly anybody retains even the slightest ounce of innocence that they had all those years ago.
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