When we were younger, our parents had the responsibility of teaching us things that will help us such as walking, talking, reading, how to dress ourselves etc. We were very dependent on them to make sure we were ready for the ‘real world’. As we grew older, we learned how to do things ourselves, things that might have been harder for our parents to teach us or were out of their control. Our parents had to watch us pick out friends, make the right choices and have the proper behavior in school or a social setting. The one thing to learn, that both parents and ourselves had the responsibility of teaching, is respect. Our parents taught us how to respect others but it was our job to carry out our actions in a respectful manner. In our world today, respect is greatly lacking. We treat others like they are not even people and we treat our teachers more like friends than our actual mentors. Don’t get me wrong, the teacher- student relationship is very important, but there’s a line that you should not cross and that line is regularly crossed. It is a different thing when not only the teachers notice it, but when students also notice it. Teachers all around the country work so hard for their students, yet the students don’t appreciate it as much as they should. At Xavier alone, we have some teachers that are also coaches and teachers that are currently in school getting their master’s degree. We don’t nearly give them as much credit as they are due. Respect should not end once you leave the classroom or school. In our country, we are all about picking fights with each other instead of having a calm conversation about certain topics. Those conversations are hard to have when, either one or both of the people involved, their goal is to be right. In heated conversations we tend to tear each other down just to prove that we are right. Our generation needs to do better. Say that extra “thank you” to the lunch ladies, tell the teachers you have that you appreciate them and last but not least, listen to what our teachers and mentors have to say. Listen to what they say even if you have to take the extra time to tuck in your shirt.