"Be Kind to Animals" Photo/Story Contest
Grades 7 - 8 Winner
“Solitude is not a terrible thing,” I thought to myself as I sat reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the twenty-seventh time. I was in second grade and barely eight years old. I had no friends; none that I could outright name, anyway. I spent my quiet days either at school, sitting at the table with kids who treated me like I was an object, or reading. Being shy doesn’t help someone meet people, and I was well aware of that. But no matter how hard I attempted to make friends, I always ended up backing away from any possibility of a relationship, and buried my face in a book. Mom and Dad noticed my constant unaccompanied state, and they believed I was unhappy. However, unknown to them, I was extremely content with just reading my stories. Whenever I did need someone to confide in and talk to as a friend, I simply imagined that I was among the characters in one of my books, conversing with them and being a part of their heroic and exciting adventures. Harry Potter was always my favorite.
It was at the dinner table one night when my father proposed an idea that changed my life, and the way I look at it, forever. “You know, Alissa,” he said. “Your sister Sarah has friends come over for a play date all the time. Why don’t you?” I didn’t answer him immediately. I did have friends, just not ones that didn’t exist in my head and on printed paper. My overall response to his question was silence. My father tried again. “Alissa, you need someone to talk to, someone who’ll listen and won’t make you so nervous and unsocial. I know you’re shy, and I’m also aware that you cannot help it. However, that is not an excuse for you to be desolate. So, your mother and I have talked about this, we’re going to get you a dog. A dog has unconditional love, Alissa. They treat you like an equal, a friend, and listen while you speak.” Unconditional? I was eight, and I had no idea what such a word meant. But from the way Dad talked about it, unconditional love sounded like a good thing.
Days passed after that fateful discussion over dinner. The puppy’s arrival was unexpected and abrupt. I was sitting in my customary blue rocking chair enjoying the various adventures of Westley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride. During the involuntary second that I looked up over the edge of my heavy volume, I set my eyes on what I believed to be a tiny powder-white fluff ball. On further investigation, I discovered it was the unexpected new dog. She, for it appeared to be a female, was curled up fast asleep on the soft carpet at my feet. I raised my head a few inches and saw my father standing nearby. I smiled at him and he returned the gesture. Dad understood my deep appreciation without unnecessary words of thanks. I named the dog Kacey, after a friend in a book I had read with a title that was lost to me. It was from Kacey that I learned what unconditional love meant.
Everyday I told her my worries and woes, how no one conversed with me at school, and how I didn’t speak to them in return to their never-ending silence and disrespect. While I talked to Kacey, she learned how I imagined that my best friends were characters in books. Eventually, I no longer needed to visualize conversations with beings. Instead, I told Kacey, and I could always tell from the glimmer in her sympathetic eye that she was listening. Kacey didn’t care that I had faults, that I was a bookworm or shy. It was because of Kacey that I started talking to people and sharing my opinions more often. Very slowly and progressively, I made my first friendships. From Kacey, I learned about unconditional love. I never needed to consult a dictionary in order to discover the meaning of such a long word. I just found it on my own. Unconditional love is when someone pays attention to you no matter what your faults and physical looks are. It’s when someone will remain with you for all times, and cares for you without a second thought. They listen to what you have to say with silent compassion and reassurance.