My Boo Radley

Everyone has in their life a time when they didn't understand something. Later, as a wiser person, you realize that what you thought was wrong. For me, it was in third grade. There was this girl named Samantha who was ignored by all the other kids. So, because I was a new student that year, I left her alone too. When she wanted to play dolls with me and the other girls, we told her to go play by herself. She would come up to us on the playground and we would just move away and go to the swings. After a while Samantha never asked to play with us. She stayed in the corner during free time, and at recess she sat on the monkey bars alone. Finally, my friends and I were free of that anoying little girl. Or so I thought. Actually, it was just untill my conscience met up with me. 

This was much like Boo. He and his gang went around in the old days, and finally when he caused too much trouble, he stopped. Well, actually he was made to stop. Boo was locked up in his house and not allowed out again. Maybe he lost the desire to go out again after a while. Just like Samantha lost the desire to want to play with me. The will to try evaporated. They gave up. But why would they want to try anyway? What would Boo do? The townsfolk knew he had caused trouble and would look down upon him. For Samantha, my friends and I would just say go away again. Later Scout learned that Boo was a nice person, not some monster that she and Jem thought he was. Likewise, little did I know it's a small world out there.

As it turned out, Samantha moved away. I didn't see her for precisly three years. In seventh grade, at the pumpkin patch, was Samantha. She was friendly and talked to me. I felt horrible. I had never given her a chance, just like Scout hadn't ever given Boo one till she met him. Once I let Samantha talk to me I wondered how I ever thought she was obnoxious. The only reason I had thought she was, was because she always had wanted to play with me. Well, if we had let her play with us, there never would have been a problem in the first place.

I realized that Scout's misunderstanding of Boo was much like my own of Samantha. We had listened to what others said about people and formed bad opinions of them without giving them a chance to make an impresion of themselves by themselves. Now I understand Samantha was never anoying, just desperate to not be alone. Boo was never mean, he was scared to go out in town during the day because all the townsfolk were terrified of him through stories they had heard. It is in this way that I realized my Boo Radley was Samantha. It took three years for me to find the truth.

Alena

Please realize I changed the name for the sake of protecting others' privacy.