Mr. Noisy

Mr. Noisy by Rozanne Lanczak is about an old man that is well known in his neighborhood. He is known by his tendencies to make a large amount of noise when is walking, driving, dancing, talking, and singing, and riding his bike. Someone in his community tells him to be quiet, so Mr. Noisy stops making his regular amount of loud noise. This was apart of who he was, so it seems he becomes sad when he is told to stop. His town misses his cheerful personality, and realizes the noise is not that bad. Mr. Noisy eventually goes back to being his old loud self at the end. The message that stuck out to me in this story is that you can try to change someone, but it may result in making them unhappy. Sometimes people are content with the way they are. I can relate to this message with an experience I had with my friend freshman year. I was good friends with this girl from my hometown. As soon as we went to college together, I realized we were a lot more different from each other than I thought. My goal in college was to concentrate on my studies, and excel in school; however, I was aware that college is a wonderful experience besides just school. I wanted to make an effort to meet great friends, go to university events, and just take advantage of what Iowa offers. I figured my friend had the same goals in mind, but I ended up being upset when she did not make time for anything but school. Freshman year I tried to change her by convincing her to be more social and get involved in things I was doing with my new friends. I was quite bitter when she was not interested in things I was doing. After a year I have finally realized that not everyone is going to have the same priorities. I realized you can try to change someone, but they ultimately will not be happy. I am happy my friend stayed strong and kept her priorities straight because if she changed for me, she would probably be very unhappy now.