The Rotary Club of Pismo Beach / Five Cites
Carlos Robinson, Third Place
Grade 5, Ocean View Elementary
Teacher: Mr. Copley
It was January 2012, and my little brother, Diego, started getting jealous of me. He was getting jealous of all the attention and presents I was getting from my relatives and family. Because of that, he started giving me the cold shoulder. For example, he wouldn’t talk to me, he wouldn’t help me, and he wouldn’t listen to me. He’d do that by plugging his ears and yelling, “La la la la la la la la la la lai” repeatedly.
I wanted to fight him, but I stopped every time, because I knew it was the wrong thing to do. Also, I didn’t want to tell on Diego because I know he’d call me a tattletale. But it became more tempting.
Eventually in time, I kind of “spilled the beans” on my brother’s hurtful actions. But when I told my mom, she didn’t help much.
Then when I was at school, my teacher, Mr. Copley, taught the class the 4-way-test. Then I thought about my brother, me and our little battle. Then I thought about how the 4-way-test might help. So I thought about how it could help.
I started with the friendship. It hurt my friendship with him. He was blocking off communication between him and me. We also couldn’t play with each other, or express our feelings of what we thought of each other.
Second up was the goodwill part. The feud didn’t promote any goodwill. My brother was pretty satisfied, but I wasn’t very happy. I was upset because I was getting resented and it didn’t feel too good.
Third up was the truthful section. The only truthful part was when I tried talking to Diego, and telling that I was sorry for him not getting much. My brother didn’t like my apology. I even offered him getting half of my stuff. He still didn’t respond.
Finally, the benefit part. Nobody benefited. My brother started getting lonely because he had no one to talk to. I didn’t benefit because I thought he was being mean. My mom didn’t benefit because she got annoyed every time I told on Diego.
After that, I told my mother about it. I told her how the 4-way-test evened it out. It finally meant something to her. Then, she made my brother apologize to me.
Soon afterward, we stopped arguing. If you have a problem, use the 4-way-test. It really works!
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