Live and let live is something you’ve probably heard over and over again, but how many of us truly listen and comply with that statement? When I was around 9-10 years old, I heard this statement but didn’t really care about it. I’ve always lived the way  I wanted, and I didn’t really care much about others’ opinions. As I grew older, I started to find that listening to other people’s opinions allowed me to grow, learn, and accept things that I used to be close-minded to. Learning to grow is a natural process that everyone goes through in their lives, whether it is a result of experience or other reasons.

For me, I learned to grow from a specific experience. It took place on a weekend, but my growth and journey to learn took place over a few years when my family and I were coming back from a restaurant. It was around 12:30 in the afternoon, and we were driving on a roundabout, where a Catholic church was directly next to it. I’ve seen this church many times, but on that one day, I did something incredibly insulting, which I still regret. What did I do? I booed the church. I didn’t mean for it to be disrespectful, and I had just said it without thinking. My father reacted so quickly that I couldn’t even finish booing. My father quickly responded in anger and in Arabic, yelling, “Keep quiet, Ali!”

The rest of the 15-minute car ride was a very quiet one. I was too scared to even open my mouth. As soon as I got home, I ran into the house, not because I was scared, but because I was ashamed of myself. Later that day, my dad pulled me aside into his bedroom, and at that point, I had forgotten that the whole situation had even happened. As soon as I was pulled into the room, I knew exactly what it was for, and the whole car ride came back into my head. I knew I was in for a fun ride. I found out later that my assumptions were completely wrong. My father started the conversation by apologizing for yelling at me in the car, and after I accepted the apology, he continued talking. He educated me on the fact that even though I’m Muslim, living in a Christian-dominated country, it is not okay for any reason to be disrespectful to any religion.

The one thing that stuck with me was when he told me that being respectful and open-minded to others’ opinions, thoughts, and ideas would benefit me by allowing me to learn and grow as a whole person. This helped me to remember that there can be another way to do something you can believe in. The beauty of America is that we are not all just one race, ethnicity, or person; we are diverse, and this country allows people to express themselves as who they are. The moral of the story is just to let people exist and do as you wish. Not doing this will only lead to more division between our communities and friends, and even to a larger scale. Live and let live.

© Ali. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.