Libba Bray said “And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” The beginning of the experience that would define my very existence happened exactly like that. One person, one moment. Totally unexpected, but it happened and I haven’t been the same since. In the weeks leading up to that fateful day, I protested any attempt towards exciting me over what I knew would be a horrible experience. It is the summer, weeks before the beginning of my seventh grade year. I have just finished my first year at a new school, Mid-Carolina Middle School and I am not excited about going back early. Before Mid Carolina Middle (MCMS) I went to several schools in the city of Newberry, none of which should have fed into MCMS. I had lived in the city all my life, until we moved at the end of the year before. I was happy with the school I was in, but my mother had heard several reports of the declining status of Newberry high school, and did not want any part of it. We bought a house on family property and moved in October. …show more content…
Middle school is a new experience for everyone.
But for me, I was going in completely blind. While other kids had friends from their elementary schools I knew no one, and had to make all new friends. I did make a few, but to me that wasn’t enough. I wanted so desperately to be cool, to be popular. To a sixth grader, popularity means everything. School was all I dealt with every day, and would deal with for several years, so I wanted to be liked, and have friends and have the “best time of my life”. I wore name brand clothes, messed around in classes, and tried to befriend the “right” people. I became interested in sports and listened to country and started to swore all the time. By the end of the year I was convinced that I was going to play baseball, but my mother had other
ideas. Marching Band. She wanted me to do marching band. I had been in concert band that year, and I actually had enjoyed it. But I had already figured out that band wouldn’t win me anything towards popularity so I had made up my mind to quit. Now my mother wanted me to do marching band, which would help even less with my goal. I protested several times but to no avail. “Go for a week” she said, “And if you still don’t like it you can quit.” “I’m not going to like it then” I thought to myself. “I just have to hate it and then I can quit”. Fate, it seems, had other ideas. The day that changed the definition of who I was started out with me waking up early, getting a shower, eating breakfast, and getting in our minivan for my mother to drive me to the school. I had packed my bag and lunch the night before, and was prepared with sunscreen, bug spray, a hat, sunglasses, a bandana, and a football. (If while reading this you think that’s a lot then you’ve clearly never been to band camp before. All of those items are quite necessary except the football which was just a rookie's mistake.) I did not want to go. I was shaking with nervousness, and queasy with anticipation. I had no clue what would await me once we got there, and braced myself for the worst. Mom pulled up to the band room door and told me goodbye. I gathered my stuff, opened the door and no sooner than I stepped onto the ground a loud voice yelled “Good Morning!” It was a girl’s voice, and as I took another step toward the band room the owner quickly came up to me. She was around 18 with brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was very pretty and much older than me. I froze. “What’s your name?” She asked. I gave her my name and she left and came back with a nametag and a small goodie bag filled with candy. I put the name tag on as she tried to talk to me. She said her name was lauren. I was very uncomfortable, and did not know what to make of this high school girl with the cheery attitude. Lauren asked me a question, but I didn’t respond. “Youre not going to talk to me?” she asked? I shook my head no. She laughed and said “why not?” “You’re weird”, I said. That made her laugh. She jokingly acted offended and then went to talk to some other older band students. I stood by myself far away from everyone else, still processing what had just occurred. This surely would be a new experience. Not long after Lauren left, everyone left to walk to the band field. It was an old field, with worn in yard lines and a tall band stand, with blackened and cracked wood. We were divided into several lines and then did stretches. Many of them I had done numerous times before, but they were all done to counts, and we were all supposed to count out loud. For a shy soon to be seventh grader, that was much worse than it seems. Two of the exercises actually had songs, and once again we all were to sing along. My goal was to play it cool and withdrawn. I had failed within the first 20 minutes. The rest of the day was filled with more overly enthusiastic people. We learned to march, and were put into even smaller groups. This was even worse for me as there was even less room to hide. Our “teachers” would call us by name and when we made mistakes it was in front of everyone. It was very awkward for me, I hated having to learn and screw up things in front of all these people. Then it got worse. As we were standing at attention, one of the “teachers” walked around us and stopped in front of me. Then in front of everyone, she yelled out “Justin Tisdale you have pretty eyes!” I died inside. I was beyond embarrassed. I couldn’t help but smile and laugh because she was cute but inside I wanted to crawl in the fetal position. For the rest of the day several people commented on my eyes, and i cringed every time someone said anything. I am an extremely shy person around new people and this girl gave people a reason to approach me. By the end of the day i didn't know what to think. Yes I had been embarrassed, but so many people had talked to me. and despite my best efforts, I actually enjoyed it. My nervousness was replaced by excitement, and anticipation to learn more. Although this was horrible for my goal towards popularity I didn't hate band. In fact I couldn't hate it. So the next day i went back. and the next day. and the next day and the next day and the next day. I didnt ever stop going and before I knew it i was a senior in high school with no more next days left. Going to band that day, changed the person I was. Because I went, I made a lot of new friends. Because Lauren came out yelling good morning, when I was a senior i strived to greet people and be overly enthused.I became that person that made me uncomfortable on that fateful day Because I learned how to march in the open, and made mistakes in front of everyone, I am more comfortable with working with people. Because I was pushed into band, I had the best years of my life and i was changed forever. My first day of band was the start of the most scary, rewarding, exhausting and life changing moments in my life. I wasn't a change I asked for, and It wasn't one i expected but it was one i needed and it defines every aspect of who i am today
...air style. I was trying to fit in while finding out who I was. I tried different things by joining the Asian American Club, National Honors Society, and H2O Bible club. In addition, I learned how to play volleyball. Through those clubs and the friends I met, I found out what defined me as a person and what I had a passion for. I was able to define myself by junior year as a person who was a perfectionist, athletic, nice, and loved to dance. I can relate to Cady from the movie because she also was trying to find her identity and how she fit into a new environment. I am glad that I had parents and friends that were able to support me and guide me into the right direction to become the person I am now. My parents would rebuke me when I was wrong and my friends were there to keep me accountable of my actions.
Everyone has had that one moment, or maybe a couple. The moment when their life changes forever, the moments when they know they will never be the same person they were yesterday. These moments are turning points that play a large role in a person’s identity.
Up till middle school, it seemed like I fit in pretty well at school. I was decent at sports and I had a good amount of friends. Life was pretty good at the time and I was enjoying it. Once high school started, I could see a shift in my life. I had lost most friends from prior years, and I was not good at sports; I struggled to fit in.
High school was, well, I guess you could say normal, but what is normal? I went to class, complained about the food, teachers, projects, you know, the “normal stuff”. In high school, looking back, I guess you could say that I was the one who had all the answers and always knew what was going on. As my one classmate put it one day “Holly’s like the New York Times; she always knows what’s going on.” I was the one that knew what the homework was, what the test would be on, if you needed notes you could copy mine because I had them all, and this was a big one; need help with your homework? Ask Holly. I’m not trying to say that I was an over-achiever, I too slacked off just as much as the next person, I guess my point is, is that I wouldn’t have been that girl if it hadn’t been for my friends.
6th grade came and my friends and I were split up, and some of my friends were in the same hall as me. I was put into what the students called “the dumb hallway”, some people weren’t as smart as the other kids in a different hallway but, let’s get back on track. Begin called a “dumb kid” started a little of my depression. I didn’t do my homework unless, it was important and I didn’t do my classwork at the best of my ability. I used my phone to read a lot instead of paying attention
Our field was a empty parking lot. We would walk around for our break, some kids would play handball on the wall while and some would go to the little Mexican shop two doors down. We would buy chips and sodas and even tacos. After we ate our lunch we would wait to go back to our so called class. We got the news a few months into our school that would no longer be attending La Sierra Community. Another change, which I was not so happy with. One thing about me is that I hate change; I didn’t even want to move to a bigger house when my parents got the chance. Our teacher said we would all be located to Arlington Regional he also mentioned that this school was going to be not only ours, but for a wide amount of others with the same issues we had. We were going to be with teens from different areas, Eastside, Southside, Corona, and Home Gardens. Not to mention every gang from every side. We had contracts to follow and a strict dress code so we don’t spark anything
I was told that this, my junior year, would be the easiest year of my high school career. And no, they were absolutely wrong. It was not just school and grades that I was concern about either. I had other things to worry about, things like, driving, clubs, friends and family. I however had no idea that it would be this difficult. Throughout this school year I have learned many things; like the value of sleep, whose really your friend, and that although very important, grades are not everything.
Although my life did not change immediately, it felt as though it did. Searing and scathing words were burned into my brain almost overnight, even though they had been spoken around me for close to a decade. Lifelong friends and family members abandoned me somewhat instantly, and all too soon I found that change and authenticity are not respected as they were once preached, leaving me in the dust to build together a life of my own.
Middle school and high school was very difficult for me. I was always categorized as a freak, Goth, or Satan worshiper. I did not wish to be categorized in any of those groups. Over the years I have been turned away by many people. They think that I am a freak and that I will cast a spell on them or something. At lunch time, I would be the kid who sat all the way at the last table. I would sit all the way in one of the corners on the edge of the table. I remember this one time at lunch in 9th grade this girl threw something at me because she did not like my shirt. I cried the whole bus ride home. I did not understand why someone would do that to some one. I did not talk to no one.
When I was in middle school I thought life was just full of joy and I really did not have
I felt aisled it with no friends no one to talk to I always has been very shy and that didn’t help me much to get friends. Moreover I pass grade and went to south high school by that time I was a little bit more open I was waking up from my shyness and start meeting friends from different culture although that everyone in the united states was going to be just American people and no one was going to speak Spanish to me except my family. Additionally getting to know different people with different culture in one country to me it was something big and exciting I learn how to identity people from different country for example I could tell who Puerto Rican people were, Salvadorian Argentina etc. Just by the
Throughout my life, I had always received recognition for being very agile and quick. My first day of Middle School consisted of the track and field coach attempting to persuade me to join the school’s athletics program. I had previously never been apart of an athletics team, and was willing to take advantage of the opportunity. Throughout my three years of middle school, I was the one consistent member of the school’s track and field team and had an overall successful personal record. Coaches from opposing school would praise me leaving me feeling very confident about myself.
Me? I never thought I would face that. I was that kid in school that had all the friends, and did everything. My friends were all different colors, I was in theater my whole life, in french classes my whole life, played football a good amount of my life, and believe it or not KI was a boy scout for a bit.
There were a lot of arguments happened around my teenage time. Most of the arguments are little things in life such as my mother waking me up at seven o’clock in the morning on weekdays, helping her clean the house, different opinions on choosing stylish outwears.
I remember the day as if it were yesterday; I was sitting in my sixth grade classroom deliberately packing my belongings away in my jam-packed locker. As I reached for my belongings, I endured all of the eventful memories that took place in that school and in my home state. All the friendships that I made would abolish. My friends sobbed as I sobbed. I anticipated this very day for about six months. As all of my belongings were finally packed, I gave my final good-byes and headed out. The mixed emotions trembled through my head. I became exceedingly furious then miserable then furious again. Hatred filled my eyes as we drove farther away. I became bitter with my family and secretly blamed it all on my