Elementary School-- an age period of when kids are purely confused about life, and solely perform actions towards their benefit. At the age of ten years old, I seemed to be living the life all the other kids at school could hardly fathom living. After three years of unknowingly being a doormat, and bestowing my greatest efforts, I finally was the first lady to the Queen Bee, Tory. Always having straightened hair, and the cutest little shoes on, I marched every step with pure confidence. I was infallible, and nobody was able to rain on my parade. Being a part of the “coolest” crew in school came with profuse rules. We always had to wear purple socks (despite being in a school with strict uniform regulations), a sparkly bracelet from …show more content…
limited too, and shimmer Lip Smacker’s lip gloss. Our group always had to be aware of what was trending—resulting in us being the first to get flip phones, the first to get boyfriends, the first to buy the new Black Eyed Peas song, the first to get IPods. My dear unfortunate parents always were the horses to my grand chariots of needs, never having the nerve to reject my copious desires. “Eliana”, my teacher called, “there is a new girl in school. Her name is Adina, I want her to sit on your table.” I rolled my eyes and grimaced at the idea of socializing with someone inferior to me. “Hi”, muttered the new girl who had a grotesque skirt and frizzy brown hair. I replied with a swift, meaningless smile, hardly making eye contact with her. She kept initiating conversations with me, and slowly my wall began to collapse. She was cordial, and so different from what I had known, as well as hilarious to put it at the least. We mutually decided to pursue a friendship with each other, and slowly became secret recess buddies, which progressed into us becoming very good friends, occasionally seen together in public. Despite my efforts to keep the companionship between the new nerdy girl and I a secret, my best friend Tory was certainly picking up on my discreet actions, resulting in me receiving many backhanded, snarky comments from her.
“Ewww Eliana, you should take a shower you have nerd reeking off of you”, and “ I’m not talking to you until you drop that loser”, were comments I’d receive on a daily basis. Like a coward, I began to distance from my friend Adina, and attempted to become close with Tory again. Finally, Tory’s birthday bash came around and all of the hottest kids would be at the party. I discovered that she had invited everyone in the group of popular boys and girls, except me. It was in this moment that I realized who my true friends were, and who weren’t. I dropped Tory immediately; I threw away the shimmering lip gloss and the purple socks, and put on my long white socks. I permanently eliminated Tory as a friend, and apologized to Adina for being truly disloyal to her. I came to the reality that anybody who discriminates against someone based off their appearance will be no friend of mine. To this day, Adina is still my best friend. I have absolutely no desire to be associated with the “trending” topic, and the superficial, as I find much more meaning in life when seeking the profound, and unconventional. This event reminded me to be a non-conformist, and to trust my intuition even if I hold an unpopular opinion. Befriending Adina was one of the best decisions I’ve
ever made.
I have you, my friends. You who look out for me, yet allow me to be myself. Eat cheesecake, drink a beer, run barefoot through the grass—and enjoy it! I know that my life could be much worse. We all know that. Thank you for listening to me bitch about my world. I’ve needed to for a long time. Now let me return to being one of you. After all, I’m just another classmate, another student, another stranger on the street.
It was official in 2005; the Lima City Schools board of education adopted a new dress code policy. This policy would be used to crack down on the unruly students who refused to follow the already lenient rules. “With a stricter dress code, students will focus more on school than looking at other students, said Suzanne Helm, a Victoria resident.” (Cavazos, 1). Lima City School District, like the Victoria school district located in Texas, spent many hours designing the new dress code policy. This new policy will test if the way students dress effects their behavior and the way that they learn.
When the results were posted the next day Mary Ann waited full of optimism because she received the most applause out of all the girls who tried out and the most applause gets to be on the team; but the cheerleading team advisor, Miss Simpson, had final say on who joins the team and she was an older, gray haired lady who dresses very modestly. When the list was posted, Mary Ann’s name was not there, when her friends, Guy and Tom, tried to encourage her to try again next year she refused and walked away defeated. This betrayal of the rules triggers Mary Ann’s all or nothing mentality, she views the world as black and white, she assumed that because she got the most applause during and after her routine that she would be guaranteed a spot on the team. Guy and Tom tried to keep her optimism in check before the list was posted explaining that even though she did do a great job that Miss simpson had final say, so it was no guarantee, but Mary Ann quickly shot them down stating “The most applause wins. That’s the rule. It’s like Queen for a Day. And I got the most applause.” Despite not showing any doubts in her self-esteem before now, being rejected from the cheerleading squad gave Mary Ann’s self-esteem a hard blow. According to Marcia (1980) individuals who are listed as Identity Foreclosures are more likely to change their internal views of themselves based off of feedback
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
“Ding”, the bell had just come alive with a mighty ring, ending the last day of school. I began shoveling the materials from my trainwreck of a locker into my bag when a close friend of mine approached me. She began bragging about the birthday party she was planning. Her arrogance annoyed me because she did not invite me, claiming that I wouldn’t know anybody. Honestly, she probably was scared of what I would do to her reputation. All she ever thought about was herself, with no regard for others. This wasn’t the first time it happened, and this pattern began to anger me, I deserved better. And that is when I decided I didn’t need her, I left her to live her own life. I felt as free as a bird but she was left alone like Scrooge. My friend
My earliest recollection of self image would take me back to elementary school and the problem of what to wear to class the first day. Would I fit in or be ridiculed for my shirt, pants or shoes? This was an early lesson watching people judged by their clothes and physical appearance. The phenomenon of image changed dramatically when I reached high school. I believe high school is a micro society in itself with personal appearance high on the list of things that are coveted. I wanted to fit in but didn’t want to compromise my individuality regarding dress, hair style and choice of peer group. During my high school years my image was ever-changing. I excelled in sports and was viewed as an athlete. On the other hand, my long hair gave me the image of a free spirit. I enjoyed hanging out with the athletes but also found myself drawn to another element; people who smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol and used drugs. I looked at these individuals as taboo, but glamorous at the same ti...
Before the list came out everyone was happy with their friends and lives, but everything changed once the list came out. The students and even some teachers start to treat the girls on the list differently. Candace was put as the ugliest tenth grader because she is narcissistic and self absorbed.” Ugliest:CANDACE KINCAID-beuaty isn't just sink deep, BTW.” Before the list came out Candace had a huge group of friends and was popular but, once it was out all her friends “dropped” her. Lauren was put as the prettiest tenth grader, and before the list no one spoke to her because she was new girl but, after the list all the girls who had “dropped” Candace wanted to be her friend because everyone wants to be friends with the prettiest girl in the
I started wearing what I wanted and not just what was popular. I didn’t have close connections with my friends at the time either. Most of them gossiped all the time, and that’s just not me. I had been stuck in my shell for way too long in fears of being an outcast. The first day of trying to come out of my shell I was made fun of, but I didn’t care near as much as I thought I would. These people are making jokes about me but don’t have any clue who I am, what I’ve been through, or what my future holds. So why even give them the time of day? I kept on wearing what I wanted and actually made life-long friends who were into the same things as I was. It does not matter what you wear or how you look honestly. The only thing that should matter is what’s inside of you, and you shouldn’t be discouraged to express that in fears of someone not liking you. “Those who matter don’t mind, those that mind don’t matter” (Theodore Suess Geisel.)
A short story is a fictional piece of writing that can range from 1,000 to 20,000 words. Unlike a novel, he reader should be able to read a short story within a short amount of time. Because the length of a short story is shorter than a novel, it usually has one main character (minor characters can be added in limited amounts) and focuses on one plot, setting, and central theme.
'Compare/contrast Faulkner's 'Dry September' with 'A rose for Emily' in terms of writing style and character presentation.';
The short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman focuses on a young woman’s psychological downfall and her fascination with the wallpaper within the house she and her husband are living in. The woman begins to believe that the wallpaper is coming alive, which leads her to become confused with reality and fantasy. Gilman selects the crazed woman as the narrator of the story. Furthermore, Gilman uses first person point of view to effectively convey the woman’s emotions and feelings during her mental decline.
It was about one-thirty in the morning in the town of Homestead Michigan. The almost florescent light of the moon bouncing off the fresh puddles that covered the ground. The grass and trees were covered in a thin layer of water causing every little beam of light to reflect back up. Anyone who may have been outside at this time would have without double, smelled the mix of fresh dirt and night crawlers. As the moonlight started to fade away through the cloud cover, three buses made there way through the streets and parked in front of HHS, the local high school.
There was a girl named Kandy, she was 15 years old. Her life was extremely boring, all she ever did was go to school, go on her computer, eat and sleep. She spent all summer on her computer. She was really good with HTML and spent her free time making web sites. Kandy didn't have many friends and rarely talked to guys because she was shy and unconfident about her looks. That's why she went into chat rooms. She made a web site with pictures of herself on it and told people in chat rooms to go there. A lot of people would tell her how pretty she was and some would say she was ugly. That made her feel awful. When anyone would say anything nice to her, she wouldn't believe them and think that they were just making fun of her. She only had one real friend that she could talk to, her name was Ang.
I remember a time a few years back when I had a group of fairly close friends. We would always hang out with eachother and we would await the day at which we were to enter high school together. When we finally reached high school, there where now a whole new group of people that were older than I. I still had my group of friends, but gradually I started to lose one of them. My friend was going against my other schoolmate, and before I knew it I was hurling the same insults as they were. It was all part of a process; a process, I thought, was going to make me popular. I thought that if I could make someone look lower than I was, I would gain self-confidence and become more popular.
As I reach the seemingly boring age of 19, I am able to look back and reflect on how my choices in the past have gotten me to where I am today. One of the most significant decisions I have made in my life was to minimize my friend group. Now, losing friends is something you hear about before you even hit junior high. The common phrase is repeated over and over again, when referring to high school, “You find out who your real friends are.” As a scrawny little freshman, with no sense of reality, I refused to believe that that phrase would ever apply to my life. The end of my sophomore year is when my then, sixteen-year-old self, realized that that overused phrase was more relevant to my life than I wanted it to be. So I did something about it.