What Makes a "Good" Person?

 "Good." A word so basic and often used. You hear that it in a positive situation, or it can be used as a word of reward or encouragement. However, what does it mean to be "good?" Is it passing all of your classes for the semester? Is it being the shoulder for your friend to cry upon? Is it letting the car that you have seen struggling to finally make the turn go ahead of you? What makes us good people? You know, I have always been taught in my life to see the good in people, but I have always wondered if this was an opportunity for excuse. Is the person who cheated on their math test be considered an evil or bad person? In my honest opinion, no. We are humans, and we all make mistakes that we soon look back on a regret, but just because someone makes a small mistake, it does not mean they are a bad person. I know that is a slap on the hand and move on with life situation, but we must think about what our own interpretations of "good" are. Is it based off of the way we were raised, or is it what we were taught in school? Is it the media accusing someone of a crime they didn't commit that makes us believe they aren't good, or is it our own gut feeling that the person we see in front of our faces is bad? Honestly, I cannot sit here and tell you what makes someone good or bad because I believe that it is all based on your own moral standards. However, I believe there comes a time when the moral standard of our own personal opinion is crossed, and we are all on the same page. In our lives, we hear horrible stories of tragedies committed by someone, and the saying does go "innocent until proven guilty," but what happens when they are proven guilty? Does that make them bad? If Christ says that we can all repent for our sins, are we ever doing anything that truly makes us bad? I remember in my senior year of high school, we read Lord of The Flies. At first, I was confused as to why, but I soon realized that this book was trying to prove that man [the human race] is inherently evil. The novel gave a great explanation and story, but I couldn't find myself agreeing with it. Now, do I believe that people can do bad things? Yes. Do I believe that they are inherently bad? No. I believe that in our lives, we grow up molding our brains into who we will become in the future. This molding is critical as it would be when creating a painting, pottery piece, or even baking a cake. If you add too much water, the mix doesn't form right. I believe this is how our morals and human interactions work. Some people put too much bad into their mix. I know this topic can be controversial, but it has been on my mind because of our reading this week. To be honest, I cannot sit here a say that I 100% know what makes someone a good person, but I can say that I believe we are born good. We are born with a clean and pure slate meant to start our mold, but I can say that some people lose that good as they grow older. They forget a step or add one that is not needed. They aren't fully "bad," but they are also not fully "good." It all comes down to the simple question: Does the good outweigh the bad, or is it vice-versa? In the end, I believe that there is good in people, but sometimes they lose it within the process of growing up.