By Chrissy Payne
Round Table reporter

“I will not be labeled as average” this was just one of the quotes by Columbine victim Rachel Joy Scott. Rachel was the first person shot at the deadly Columbine High School shootings in 1999.

Rachel’s challenge, a non-profit organization in her memory, came to Middletown High School on Nov. 8; telling her story and spreading her words. The words from her eight diaries that were left behind were words of compassion and hope.

As I sit in the auditorium and listen to this presentation, I can’t help but think of everything that happened the day of the deadly shooting. The way it affected the school, the community, and the family and friends of the victims is mind boggling. Sitting there it made me want to run and hug my parents and tell them how much they mean to me. It must have been hard for her parents to cope.

The whole organization was started by her father; the fact that he continued his daughter’s ideas was something that made me want to follow Rachel’s words and ideas. It’s hard to grasp that because of the aftermath of this deadly day, that her father would have the strength to start an organization like this.

But as I listen more I start to hear Rachel’s story, a story of how she believed a little compassion could start a chain reaction. If one act of kindness can motivate another person, and then another and so on, than maybe it can actually change the world.

I exited the auditorium with a sense of well-being and wanting to be a better person. I looked around and saw my peers and thought that maybe everyone is going through the same things. We all go through issues as teenagers and maybe if we all just came together, we could start a chain reaction.

Being kind to one another is not hard, it’s actually pretty simple. Seeing someone in need and just walking up to them and asking if you can help them out; or just giving a nice compliment to someone. It will start the “do-good, feel-good” phenomenon which will start a chain reaction.

Being a better person will make the world a better place and as Rachel Scott would say, “Compassion is the greatest form of love humans have to offer.”