Love Me, Love My Rat.

         “No. I don’t want to meet your rat,” my grandma replied firmly to my constant bugging.
         “FINE! Be like the rest of the stuck-up, immature people who think rats are sewer-dwelling animals who bite!” I yelled, furious at people shallow enough to believe the false rumors surrounding rats. I bolted to my room, bursting with tears. “It’s not fair!” I sobbed angrily to my pillow. “If Shakespeare was a dog, everyone would love him! But since he’s a rat, it seems only I do!”
         I stormed back into the living room, ignoring my grandma, who was looking at me like I had 3 heads. I plopped down in the big, comfy computer chair, determined to make a presentation showing that rats were friendly and smart, and didn’t deserve their bad reputation. I, of course, knew that already, but nobody seemed to believe me, and some people even laughed or ignored me. I opened up the internet and searched “rats.” I flipped through the results, finally settling on one rich with photos and information. I started copying and pasting pictures of rats into my slideshow and reading the information while typing up a few paragraphs of my own using what I knew and what I was learning from the website.
         Finally, at 9:00 PM, 3 hours after I started, I saved my 12-page slideshow to a disk. My hand was sweaty from holding the computer mouse so long. “Well, that’ll show everyone that rats are good.” I whispered to myself proudly.
         I dropped the disk in my big, blue backpack, anxious to get to school the next day and prove my point. Excited, I put on my soft blue pajamas and climbed into bed.
         The next day at school, I asked my teacher during homeroom if I could show my slideshow on the classroom computer. “Well…ok,” she stammered, unsure.
         “Great! Thanks!” I exclaimed with joy as I put the disk in the CD drive. I took the microphone off my teacher’s desk and started reading what I had written to the class. Everyone watched me with blank expressions on their faces. I couldn’t tell if they were amazed by the wonder of rats or if they were laughing at me internally.
         At lunch that day, a lot of people approached me and commented on my slideshow. Others muttered to their friends. “How nasty. A presentation on RATS? Gross!” one kid had whispered to a friend.
         “That rat girl, what’s wrong with her?” another wondered loudly to a friend, as if wanting me to hear them.
         Barely any of the feedback was positive. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Apparently news of my slideshow had found it’s way around school. I would be extremely lucky if I could find a friend now. Oh well. People can talk. It never affects me.
         If I learned anything from this experience it’s that people tend to devote more of their brain to believing rumors than the truth. I also learned not to listen to generalizations, rumors, or reputations because they’re usually wrong or blown out of proportion. People stay in their ways and do what everyone else is doing, and very few people have the courage to go against the crowd or try something new.