This One Goes Out to Anna Witkin: My Enemy and Friend

The enemy: Anna Witkin. The battleground: the Intermediate School playground. The weapon: woodchips. In fourth grade, Anna Witkin and I viewed each other as sworn enemies…for no particular reason. Perhaps it began when we wanted the same swing at recess, but it turned into a never-ending battle where we daily kicked woodchips at the other while swinging. I distinctly remember Anna instigating all the conflicts, although if asked, she will make some absurd claim about her innocence. In class on Monday, we discussed the two neighbors in Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall,” and how they build a wall between them for no practical reason other than the barrier always exists. Anna and I have discussed our past dislike of one another but still cannot remember how it started or why it continued. We fought simply because we had always done so…although Anna did act fairly obnoxious as a child if I remember correctly. In discussion, we noted how the neighbors in the poem meet to mend the wall and despite the barrier, or perhaps because of it, they work together and communicate for a short period before the wall divides them once more. Similarly, Anna and I gathered every so often in peace, in Girl Scouts. Somehow, our bitterness ended when we walked into a Brownie’s meeting and chanted the Girl Scout promise in unity. The wall of distrust and suspicion crumbled for an hour. Then, it came back stronger than ever when the meeting ended. Despite our mutual loathing, as much as ten year olds can hate one another, by sixth grade we became best friends, seemingly overnight. Today, we argue together as debate partners rather than against each other. Perhaps we began and ended our hostility so easily because children base friendships off of trivial actions and views. However, children also tend to accept differences easier and let go of the past quicker than adults. I view our complicated relationship as proof of the pointlessness of walls of distrust between people. While Frost’s poem repeats the seemingly positive quote, ‘“Good fences make good neighbors,”’ walls by definition separate people (27). Whether literal walls, like the Berlin Wall or the West Bank wall between Israel and Palestine, or figurative barriers between people made up of stereotypes and distrust, they prevent progress and tolerance. Walls allow people to separate themselves from what they fail to understand or do not want to acknowledge. Anna and I allowed juvenile ignorance and stubbornness to prevent us from creating a lasting friendship for two years. Fortunately, we overcame the childish drama between us and can now look back on the time and laugh or blog about it. I can only hope that similar walls of ignorance will break down over time.