Respect

By Nethika Suraweera, Orange Belt

Respect is a way of treating other people. Being nice, polite, admire them and demonstrate high regard for them means respect. Person’s own qualities, abilities and behavior bring him respect. Making ourselves respectful people and learn how to respect other individuals in our society are important aspects in developing a successful and pleasant community.

I grew up in Sri Lanka which has completely different customs and culture than in USA. The way of respecting other people is done in a different dimension in Sri Lanka. I like what I learned there as to how to respect adults, parents, teachers, employers; all the people at a higher level than you with respect to age, education or occupation. But there was lack of respect towards the people at a lower level with respect to age, education, occupation and even based on rich or poor. It was frustrating sometimes, but you have to live like a Roman in Rome. For example if you smile or say “How are you?” or “Good Morning” to a person (that you don’t know) you meet on the street, that is a strange and inappropriate thing to do or even may be a call for danger. When I moved to USA 8 years ago I realized that here people respect everyone more equally. The way they talk and treat to strangers, children, students, employees, how people drive cars; all looked very nice and polite than the place where I used to live. I understand that they may not have deep concerns for other people and I know it is not perfect here. But at least it is way more pleasant and less stressful to live in a place that people have some respect to everyone around them.

So when I moved to USA, I had to learn a great deal of customs, culture and way of respect and speech.  And I am still learning.  As a mother of two young children, I have to learn, practice and teach respect. This is tough and I cannot make mistakes, because I am preparing and presenting 2 humans to the society. Me and my husband work hard to do the right thing for our children and our family. We learn everyday by reading books and meeting people on how to make our children’s lives successful by developing good qualities. Respect and love towards one another is the most important part of it. We must show respect to children, then they learn to respect. The influence we have from CTI is very helpful and valuable to our lives in developing these qualities.

Respect is a beautiful thing that makes people and community a happy and pleasant place. It brings quality and success to our lives and teaches us to be modest, honest and truthful.