story4545.xml

story4545.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

This was like any other day and time that I would be teaching the character education class at Gabold Middle School #108 in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of the other teachers came in and said something big had happened and we needed to turn on the news and we watched everything unfold. It was a sobering moment. See I have children that were all in the same place, Lawrence Central High School, and I was in a different place. Although I was concerned about my children I began to thank God that I knew that no matter what He was watching over them. As other parents were coming to get their children from school to take them home, I had the assurance that God was going to protect them in my absence. See that is what faith in God did for me. Also, I began to pray for the missing and the families that were going to be affected by the tragedy. I guess it wasn't until later that I began to wonder why anyone would want to do something like this. I told my students that even though people may do bad things it really doesn't make them a bad person. They were doing something that they believed in. The mistake they made is when they brought in innocent lives that paid for their choice. I took it right back to let them see that the choices we make do affect other people and posibly a generation of people. Remember that the choices you make today will affect your tomorrow and the tomorrows of the people that really love and care about you.

This was a lesson to everyone. Be careful of the choices you make, someone is always affected. Don't be so caught up in your beliefs that you do not consider the lives of others. We all count no matter if we are a bumb on the street or the riches man in the world. Or for that matter the person somewhere in the middle. Our choices affect our lives and the lives of the people around us and on and on. It's all about choices and consequences.

Humbly submitted,
Michelle P. Jones
Indianapolis, Indiana