Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mrs. Crowell
Adv. Comp
23 August, 2017
Challenging Beliefs
Peanut is one of my good friends. We play golf together, went to the same school, and
occasionally hang out on the weekends. Peanut's real name is Reed Helman. We have known
each other since my freshman year. Reed got the name Peanut from all the Prince and ACAD
guys who made fun of his haircut during the matches. Peanut always kind of stuck after that.
Peanut was a good guy and I could always count on him to be there for me. However, as good of
friends as we are, my freshman year we did not really get along all that well. We had complete
opposite political viewpoints. I prefer a more conservative side to economics and I am a big
proponent of the free market, while Reed supported Bernie Sanders and subscribed to the
Democratic Socialism theory. Peanut and I argued and argued but we could not grasp each
others viewpoints. We both prided ourselves on being very tolerant people. We played in golf
matches almost every day, so we learned how to handle each other-until one day we duked it out
on the tee box of hole number two while waiting for other groups to finish. After this we were a
lot better friends, we respected each other on a whole new level, and could finally start
but my parents always told me I had a choice. I had liberal family members who I listened to. I
also had my grandpa and cousins on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. My mom and
dad always taught me no matter what views I have, I must always try and understand people and
their views, even though it can be hard. My dad used to say, You cant judge anyone son. You
have no clue what they have been through. I always took that to heart, but even remembering
such advice from my father, one of the people I respect most in this world, it was hard not to
immediately judge people by their beliefs. I have always tried to see both sides of the parties on
each issue. I did not know Reeds background or what kind of family he came from, I assumed
they were great people. Reed liked Bernie Sanders, and I believe he voted for Hilary, which I
understood. Every time I asked him why he gave good answers. Reed always said, The poor in
this country suffer and Minimum wage needs to be increased. My whole freshman year I
decided that we might as well not talk about it. We would be better of putting it to the side and
My freshman year passed and then came the end of my sophomore year. By then Reed
and I had become very good friends. We hung out sometimes and played a lot of golf together.
One day we were playing a match at Lakeview Academy and the course was backed up. We
were having to wait about thirty minutes on the tee box when a conversation arose. I can barely
remember how it started something about him always having As throughout high school and
studying every night. He told me about how he did it all to be the top of his class so that one day
he could become a doctor. I then casually brought up the argument, After all the time, sweat,
and money you put into getting good grades and going to UGA, why would you give that hard-
earned money to someone else? Someone who most likely slacked off and never went to class or
even tried. He was a little confused so at first and we went back and forth about the idea of
democratic socialism. He told me, Fifty small countries in South America, Europe, and Asia
had all given this theory a try and it was working. I had not heard of this statistic so I thought
about it. I asked him questions about how it worked so I could get a better hold on the situation
and we finally agreed. It is hard to compare those small countries with populations of less than
ten million to a country such as the United States that has a population of about 330 million. We
were stuck at fork in the road. He was a strong believer in that socialism could work; however, I
was very skeptical and believed it could be a disaster. We continued to question each others
beliefs and try to see it from one anothers perspective. After much arguing and discussing the
issue, we finally came up with a conclusion. We both understood that there was a problem with
the poor in our country and they needed help. We each had different viewpoints on how to
address the situation; however, we both understood that there were many ways to approach it.
We realized in that conversation that our different political ideas were indeed very different but
Reed and I spent months avoiding talking about politics but that day changed our entire
friendship. We had a real conversation in which we finally understood each other. It is hard to
not judge people for beliefs that contradict with your own. In the United States, most of the
country is divided among social and political beliefs and it is important that we somehow can
come to an agreement and begin to understand and love one another. I used to not even listen to
peoples opinions that opposed mine, but after hanging out with Reed I now know that I should