Written in the rocks: ‘Kindness will always win’

When Hadley Idema was younger, before she started attending Lakeside Elementary, she struggled to make friends. Her parents would do their best to encourage her to stay true to herself and not to be daunted.

“My parents, every day, they would tell me, ‘Go, stand out, be yourself,’” Hadley said.

She tried to live by those uplifting words, and eventually, around the time her family moved to East Grand Rapids, her parents’ message paid off. Now a many-friended soon-to-be sixth-grader, Hadley found her tribe at Lakeside. It’s no surprise, then, that she wanted to pass along her parents’ message to the school’s future students.

Read more from our partners at School News Network!