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   WZM Award for Compassion 


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Ruth Handy  presenting WZM  Award for Compassion to  Kendra Watkins

 

WZM Award # 2 Presented on June 7, 2006 to Kendra Watkins

The second WZM Award was presented to Kendra Watkins at Frazier Mountain High School in Frazier Park, CA.

 

 

 

 


Essay by Kendra Watkins

George Washington Carver once stated, "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." This quote expresses exactly how I live my life. Everyday I make the choice to be compassionate because one day I may need the same kind of help I give someone else. This is not the main reason I do the things I do. When I see a person or an animal in trouble my conscience tells me that the right thing to do would be to help them.

The way I feel now is not how I always felt. When I was nine years old my family went through a very disturbing time. During this period of time I stopped caring because it hurt less than letting the pain in. I spent about six months walking around with this outlook on life. When I saw some animal hurt on the side of the road I would walk on by doing nothing to help. When my frinds had a problem I turned them away. Then one day everything changed. My best friend's father attempted suicide and I could no longer turn my emotions off. He was the one person who could snap me out of it.

From that day on I started down the path that has lead to who I am today. I can no longer walk by a hurt or abandoned animal without doing something to change the situation. One day my mother and I were driving home and we saw a dog running down the center of the road. I made my mom stop and we took the dog home with us. The dog had been pushed out of a car and had extreme road rash on her chest. Everyday I spent about a hour outside playing with her and applying ointment to her chest.

About a month ago I cut off most of my hair and donated it to "Locks-of-Love" for a child who has cancer to have a wig. In the fall I plan on attending Cal Poly San Luis and majoring in Liberal Studies to become an Elementary school teacher. When I graduate I hope to open my own animal rescue and a safe house for abused and abandoned children.

Helping people and animals should not be something one does for attention but something that is done because it is right. As Arnold Schopenhauer once said, "Compassion is the basis of morality."

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Ruth Ratna Handy, LCSW
jizopeacecenter@gmail.com
(818) 834-5925


 

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