This I Believe

"Empathy Within Family"

I believe in the act of empathy, because sometimes you need to put yourself into someone's shoes to see what they would want. 

When I was almost seven years old, I lost one of my teeth. As usual, I wrote a letter to our tooth fairy, named “Tallulah.” For some reason, I was particularly excited about this tooth, so I had quite a bit of trouble sleeping. At one point in the night, I saw my dad come into my room, write a quick letter down, place a few dollars in it, then put it under my pillow. At the time, the tooth fairy was a big deal to me, and it hit me pretty hard to find out that it was just my parents.

When I woke up, I went into my parents room with my letter, and a somewhat fake smile plastered across my face. I was just about to tell them what I saw when I noticed my sister Caroline was sitting there as she wiggled her slightly loose tooth. I thought for a moment, if I said I found out the whole tooth fairy thing was fake, I would ruin all the fun childhood memories you have with that experience. So, I kept quiet and opened my card happily. A while later, Caroline did end up losing her first tooth and was really excited. I was glad that I never said anything because my sister was able to enjoy that experience that could have been spoiled.

As you can see, I value empathy because sometimes you need to put yourself in someone else's shoes so that they can enjoy the things I once did too.