Respect.

Two weekends ago I went grocery shopping with my mom and younger sister. As we were shopping, we noticed elderly women taking her time browsing through the meat section. My mom had told me to grab some milk from a different part of the store. While I was walking back a teenage girl, about my sister’s age, storms by with a cart and started rushing the lady. She was the lady’s granddaughter, of course. But in the whole time my mom was getting food for the weekend, we could hear the teenage girl yelling repetitively at her grandmother saying “K’ad!?” which means “now” in Navajo. It was so shocking to see someone treat their family member like that, especially a young girl. I was raised to treat people with respect and respect elderly people more because they are wiser and that they know more than I do. But I remember seeing my mom’s face and how bad she wanted to say something to that girl. And I too wanted to say something, but I couldn’t because I didn’t think of how the lady would have taken it. It hurt to see the elderly women get treated like that. It took so much not to say something to that girl like “Quit being a stupid little girl. You’re embarrassing yourself way more than pushing around that damn cart."

It saddens me to see that kind of treatment done to someone they love, because I never had the chance to actually be with my grandparents. On my father’s side I never met my grandma or grandpa, because my grandma passed when my dad was only a child and he never met his father. My mom’s mom passed when I was only 7 and I never met my grandpa.

Since I never actually had a grandpa or grandma, I guess it’s different. I see how kids treat their grandparents and it makes me think of how it would have been if mine were still around.

But now seeing more events like this happen around my town I don’t think I have seen this much disrespect in a long time. Even when I was a child I don’t remember seeing anyone doing that. My guess is because of the society today, with the IDGAF or the “I can do whatever I want” attitude we have now; we don’t care what people think of us, even if we are embarrassing ourselves in public and act like complete morons.