"Anything is Possible...
to Become a Man When You're a Boy"

     The way I became a man when I was a boy, was when I was twelve years old.  It was the first of April which wasn't good because everyone always plays tricks on me.  Nobody did anything to me until after school.  One of the high school kids said my shoe was untied and kicked me in the back and yelled, "April Fools!"  All of the other kids started to laugh.

     So I hit him because I was taught not to hit someone unless they hit me first.  That way it's not my fault.  When I got home, I told my Dad what had happened at school and he said, "Next time, walk away."

     At school the next day, that same high school kid came up to me and said, "Lets fight," like he had a mission.  Then when he was getting ready to punch me i said, "Only cowards get into fights, especially a high school kid wanting to fight a kid still in middle school,"  and I walked away.  While I was walking away, I felt good about myself and I knew that I had done the right thing.

     So, that's how I became a man when I was a boy.  Well, that's my story and here is my advice.  It takes a big man to walk away from a fight, and it takes a little boy to fight without thinking first.


Michael Melanson
Grade 7
Breed Middle School
Lynn, MA 01905
January 2000


This essay won Michael an award from the Breed PTA Reflections program.  It will now go to the State Level and if it wins there, it will move onto the National Level of the PTA



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