Lessons Well Learned

"Lessons Well Learned," is a fictional tale describing the life of George William Smith and his family. George's mother dies the night he is born which is on Halloween in 1888. He is raised by nuns at an orphanage for the first ten years of his life, but in 1898 he is adopted by an older man named Edwards, who is a self-proclaimed white supremacist. Until George is seventeen, he is taught, almost forced, to become a bigot. His adopted father insists that anyone different from him; Indians, Mexicans, Asians, homosexuals, and especially Negros, are people he should distrust and despise. In 1904, 'Pa' Edwards suddenly dies, and George is on his own for the first time in his life. Within a few years George not only learns he is part Indian, but he meets and falls in love with Tula, his teacher, who happens to also be a full-blooded Apache. Throughout his life, George continues to meet people from the groups he was taught to hate, other Indians, as well as Negros, Mexicans, and homosexuals, and all of them contradict the horrible stereotypes he was expecting to find. It is a collection of moments, some harrowing and others more emotional, that have a dramatic effect. George learns life's lesson well and becomes a man of kindness, patience, and tolerance.