Naomie Meredith, Tekoa High School Senior
Growing up in a big family has had a huge impact on me and who I have become. In my family, there seven of us living in a four-bedroom house, and I am one of the five kids in my house, so needless to say it can get pretty chaotic, but home is where the heart is, right?
Between getting from point A to point B, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of kids and animals, you always have to rely on each other. Those are some of the simple things that we have to worry about, but more importantly, trustworthiness comes into play when someone needs you. If they’re going through something drastic, or something that they don’t understand, they will need someone to talk to. For my brother, Jamison, that’s me. I have three brothers, and a sister that mean so much to me; however, I have always been the closest with Jamison. We are only three years apart, both now in the same small high school, and we have grown up liking a lot of the same things. Once Jamison reached seventh grade two years ago, he joined me in our high school where seventh through twelfth graders all share the same building, teachers, and small town atmosphere of our school. More than ever, we connected, watching each other’s sports teams, and bumping into each other all through our days at school.
However, life can throw you some hard events. When Jamison started hitting some tough spots in his physical health, it turned out to have a detrimental effect on his mental health. If you got to know him, you would know that he would do anything to play basketball; however, when he was diagnosed with scoliosis, he was challenged with restrictions on his athletics. When he wasn’t able to get out and play sports, his mental health began to deteriorate. He changed drastically. He was always so sad, and he always felt tired and worn out. He went from this happy, joke-cracking, fourteen year old to a completely different person. He became closed off and silent, which was very unlike himself.
I am the only one that he is really close to in my house. Therefore, I am the most trustworthy person to talk to when he is feeling down. When the hard times came for him, all the years I have worked so hard to build this trust with him became invaluable. It was always important for me to keep trust in our relationship, but now it was for his health. I’m not sure what he would have done if he hadn’t had someone to talk to on hard days, or someone who checked up on him each and every day.
Each evening after school and practice, I make my way to his room to see how his day was and just to talk to him. We share some of my favorite moments just talking about life and telling each other stupid jokes just to make each other laugh. He is such an amazing person to be around when he’s having good days, so I try to make sure he is okay no matter what. Even if I am not having the best day, and I just want to be alone, it is all worth taking the time to make sure all is well with him.
Everything that has kept our relationship strong has relied on the foundation of this trust that he has put in me, which is why trustworthiness is so important to me and my family.
In fact, it seems to me like a lot more people rely on trust than we would ever know, so I am forever grateful that I built mine.
Naomie Meredith is a Senior at Tekoa High School. Last year, she was the first Tekoa Junior ever nominated for the PACE Character Award. She is an active person, involved in sports, class leadership, FCCLA as well as maintaining the highest GPA in her class. Students and teachers often cite Naomie’s kindness and ability to deal with challenging situations with calmness. This makes sense as Naomie plans on entering the nursing profession.
