"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts? "

            Thank you Confucious for the everlasting true quote. I feel that the freshmen group had a
severe lack of respect both days when we were working together. I feel that
could be a reason why the freshmen group had trouble. There is definitly more
to the problem but in my eyes, the lack of respect played a major role.

On the first day the freshmen worked together, people were talking over
each other, cutting people off in the middle of their thoughts, and not letting
others speak. We had to resort to a two year old method, called the “talking
object.” You were only allowed to speak when you had the object and of course
this didn’t work. On top of the previous disrespect, everyone was reaching over
for the talking stick. Unfortuneatly for my group, this lack of respect and
maturity did not go well with me. I consider myself to be respectful. I try not
to talk over others. But, if I show you respect, and I do not get the same in
return, you should no longer expect respect back. That tugging at the darkest
and deepest depth of my stomach could no longer be held. I erupted.  My pupils were replaced with pits of fire. I was so through with everyone butting heads, and not being respectful. After
this point the freshmen group finally colloborated and decided to just
vote on an idea and put it into action. So, day one was hell.

The second day, was no different. I knew from the second we had to work on
this project again, something bad was going to happen. It started off alright,
but then we started to talk about the day before. Then the first day’s problem
became the second day’s problem. We started to talk over each other, cut other
people off in the middle of their thoughts, and butt heads. I tried to jump into
the conversation in order to keep everyone quite but I was not given the
chance. At some point, someone chimed in and said we all need to be qiuet when
others are talking, and I agreed, that’s what I have been trying to say. For
some reason, this comment had to be ridiculed. Someone else told me I can’t be
like that. And then that person mimicked my comment in a stupid immature
disrespectful way. And it took every piece of strength that I had not to get
very annoyed. I’ve never been treated this disresepectfully from my friends. I
eventually left to use the bathroom and I was told to sit back down by someone.
I said I’m going to use the bathroom. After school, I was told that after I had
left, my statement of “I’m going to the bathroom” was given air quotes. If I
had known about this right then and there, I would have been very disappointed.
When I returned from the bathroom, I kept my mouth shut.

So these past two days working with the freshmen group has helped me
understand Confucious’ quote of “Without feelings of respect,
what is there to distinguish men from beasts? "Without respect, we are no
different from beasts. I will hope on Monday, if we break into our groups again,
this will not happen. We all have voices that deserve to be heard whether we like it or not.  So please, let’s give every voice a chance.