Forgiveness

Mr. O'Reilly, my sixth grade teacher, yelled at me.

It was humiliating.

He was teaching a lesson to the class, when this kid, Joey something-or-other, started saying things to try and get me to laugh.  I was an easy target, and Joey knew it. My back was to the teacher, so there was no way Mr. O'Reilly could've known if I was talking back or not.

"Megan, I don't want you being rude and interrupting my lesson!"

You can imagine my shock and embarrassment at being singled out in front of everyone. I was one of the best students in the class, and had never gotten in trouble for anything. Ever. (Yeah, I was a goody-goody.) 

I turned around and sheepishly said, "But Mr. O'Reilly, I wasn't talking..."

"What you did is not acceptable. I want you to report back here for recess."

(You must realize I'm paraphrasing here; this happened...well, a long time ago.)

I managed to hold my self together for the rest of class, and I'm pretty sure I didn't eat anything at lunch--I don't eat when I'm upset. I reported back to Mr. O'Reilly's classroom at the beginning of recess, as instructed, and experienced one of the most impressive moments of my life.

Mr. O'Reilly asked me to sit down at a desk, where he proceeded to take a seat across from me. 

"Megan, I spoke with a few of your classmates today after I had yelled at you, and I now realize that I was wrong."

WHAT?!?!?!

Adults, never mind teachers, don't apologize.

"I was told that you were not the one talking, and that it was Joey. So, I'm sorry for accusing you of talking when you weren't."

I sat there dumbfounded, but somehow found a way to say, "Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. I really wasn't the one talking..."

"I know, Megan. You can return to recess."

And so, when I was 11 years old, I learned three life-changing lessons in one afternoon that have stayed with me:

1. Never rush to judgement

2. Adults aren't always right.

3. Whenever you are wrong--apologize.