‘Respect is earned, not given’. Maybe you have heard of this quote a thousand times because it is one of the most famous quotation when it comes to respect. But what does it really mean? Before we discuss that quote, let’s look at the definition of respect first.
According to Wikipedia, “respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. “
In other words, respect is about accepting someone for who they are, even when they’re different from you or you don’t agree with them. Going back to the quote, we can say that respect will only be given to you if you deserve it.
So how do we earn that respect? According to the person that we will be featuring today’s story, respect must begin in yourselves. Let us look at her story right now on how she is living a life full of dignity, hope, and faith.
Let’s Get Started
The story for today is about a person who have psychological disability because of her epileptic condition. She is currently working at the health department of Pasig City government.
Her name is Ma. Rikki Lyb Col-long, a 24-year old lady who loves to dance, play instruments such as violin and piano. Like our previous stories, we asked her some questions about dignity, dreams, and her hope for the future.
For the first question, we asked Rikki about her opinion when it comes to dignity and here’s her answer.
Dignity is about respect for yourself and others. For me and for us PWD , we should not be bother by our own disability or sickness we should think in a positive way on how we can recover or simply on how can we adjust new life... (treated equally without hurting others).
Her opinion about dignity is almost the same with Jester (Person With Dignity Story 3), but the only difference is her additional note about respect. According to Rikki, dignity is about accepting and respecting yourself and other people.
If we would like other people to respect and accept us, we must start respecting ourselves first. We should never take our conditions to be a hindrance for us in achieving our dreams and goals in life.
That’s why Rikki was loved and cared by the people around her because she learned how to accept and respect herself. In return, she is also doing the same thing with her family and friends by giving the same love and respect for them.
On her opinion, loving, respecting, and caring for the people she loves is one of the greatest achievements she will do in her life. We can see that Rikki is a loving person and it was so amazing.
Even though she has her condition, it didn’t stop her from showing love and respect toward other people. Rikki knew that respecting oneself will produce respect and love to other people.
She is one of the best examples of the quote that we have mentioned earlier. The respect that she has for herself created a sense of admiration of people for her life. She earned the respect from other people because of her acceptance and respect of her own identity.
But if there’s one thing that would make her happier in life is that she will be successful in her career and have a healthy and wonderful life with her loved ones. In fact, she puts all her hopes and dreams unto God alone. She is looking at her future with God on her life always.
As we finish our interview with Rikki, she shared a piece of advice to her fellow PWDs. She said that our disability is not a barricade for us to continue in life. We need to believe that God has a perfect plan and purpose for our life.
We must not give up but rather be proud of what we have. Remember, we may have some of disability, but we also have something that we are capable of and be proud of it. You must find that something and improve it and use it to enrich your purpose in life.
Story Takeaways
Respect starts within yourself before we can give it to other people. This is one of the best lessons that we got from the story of Rikki. To be honest, having an epileptic condition is quite hard. But she learned how to respect herself and accepted her reality.
As a result, the respect that she had for herself created a feeling of respect from the people around her. It is like a domino effect that cannot be stopped.
People like her friends, colleagues, and families started to give her the respect that she earned because they saw acceptance, love, and respect on her own life.
Therefore, if you want other people to respect who you are, you should start respecting yourself first. After doing that, surely the people around you will start giving you the respect that you deserve.
If you already accepted and respect who you are, then you should also start giving respect to other people and live your life with dignity, faith, and hope for the future.
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