My Story of Inclusion

SWOOSH!!! SWOOSH!!! SWOOSH!!! Trees swayed in the breezy wind, as birds chirped delightful songs. Different colored leaves fell gracefully to the ground, signaling the start of autumn. The air was cool and damp from the recent rain.

It was recess at school. My friends and I were in the woodchip-filled playground, deciding what to play.

“June! What do you think we should play?” asked my friend, Emma, climbing one of the structures.

“I don’t know,” I told her, “Maybe we can make obstacle courses for each other.”

“Yeah! Great idea!” my other friend, Phoebe, exclaimed, running towards Emma.

“Okay!” Emma replied.

Phoebe started first, hanging and balancing on one of the ladders like an acrobat, while Emma and I tried to copy her. We couldn’t do it and ended up climbing back up, laughing hysterically.

“Phoebe, that was awesome!” I told her.

“Your turn, June!” Phoebe reminded me.

“Okay!” I responded.

Just as I started to position myself on the ladder Phoebe used, I spotted one of my classmates, Katherine, sitting all by herself in an empty corner of the playground. She was hunched over, with her face buried in her hands.

“Ummm… can you guys play by yourselves for some time?” I inquired. Then, seeing my friends’ confused faces, I added, “I see Katherine sitting in a corner over there. She seems sad, so I am going to try to cheer her up.”

“Okay,” Emma answered.

I walked to Katherine, who was sitting close to the door that led to the parking lot near the playground.

“Hi, Katherine! How was your day?” I asked.

She lifted her head, her face streaked with tears; she was crying.

“I feel lonely. Nobody wants to play with me,” she responded, “I have asked many people to play with me, but they all said no.”

I have experienced this before. Nobody wanted to play with me, so I also sat in a corner, feeling like I was a red leaf among green leaves. Should I help Katherine? I wondered.

Suddenly, then and there, I made up my mind. I was going to help her feel included and welcomed. I included Katherine in the games my friends and I played. She was smiling from ear to ear, and jumped up and down. Yaaay!!! I had made a new friend! I think I made Katherine feel included and content. I felt like I had completely changed someone’s life. I learned that kindness and inclusion are always the first steps to making new friends, as well as making someone’s day better. This action that I took showed me that one act of kindness can make someone’s day better. It also revealed that inclusion is important.

That is my story of inclusion.