My realtor previously said, “Out of all the places you lived, Lindale will by far be the best and most favorite ever.” By the age of fourteen I had moved four times across the country. The United States consists of millions of towns with millions of inhabitants; however, when a foreigner invades the people are not consistently cordial. The first day of freshman year my mother advised me to smile and make friends. When I entered the foreign school, recognized by the name Lindale High School, I treated with uncertainty and minor fear. The vibes emitting from the chattering, eager students felt terribly different. I shrugged the uncomfortable feeling off hoping the nerves would vanish. However, as the day progressed I realized my gut feeling was legitimate. The way these people thought and spoke was as if they were superior to everybody. I appeared to me if a person did not live in Hideaway than you were subpar in their perception. If one did not participate in a certain sport or spoke a certain way, they meant nothing on the social ladder. I have been in a plethora of schools, and no other had acted this way. I continued to try for a couple of weeks as my mother urged me to do. …show more content…
Eventually, when my former friends replaced me and my voice, to these new current people, went unanswered, I settled myself into a container of isolation. In addition to the social atmosphere being peculiar, the academic caliber was exceptionally lower than what I anticipated. The people who helped find our house stated that the school district ranked one of the highest in the state. After the first month though, I realized the work I performed in a fifth grade classroom challenged me more than an honors freshman class. The school did not live up to the expectation and hype of the townspeople. As I began to listen to students and hear their grades, the realization that they were good STAAR test takers only dawned on me. So for eight months I had no friends, academic challenges, or a support system. I discovered myself descending into a depression that would last for almost three years and caused me to be mute for eight months. Things began looking up slightly part way through sophomore year all due to a magnificent woman named Emily Weesner.
She taught my health science class. At the beginning Ms. Emily appeared to be my polar opposite. She acted excited constantly, praised Jesus like crazy, and radiated positivity. Ms. Emily terrified me because she had the aspects of who I wanted to be but nothing I had. However, despite every defense mechanism I placed around myself she saw through them. Emily Weesner displayed love and acceptance to a person she barely even knew at the time. For the first time in well over a year little parts of my walls began falling off. Throughout the year with many lunchtime conversations she taught me that through God and myself thing would eventually improve. I just had to believe in
it. Although I chose many poor decisions
Some college students might try to be more inclusive of others outside their own racial group by interacting across racial/ethnic lines. Humphrey’s states that although “students today do sometimes choose to live, socialize, or study together with similar backgrounds.” (575, Hoeffner and Hoeffner) however, she believes self-segregation does not appear to be widespread.
“School can be a tremendously disorienting place… You’ll also be thrown in with all kind of kids from all kind of backgrounds, and that can be unsettling… You’ll see a handful of students far excel you in courses that sound exotic and that are only in the curriculum of the elite: French, physics, trigonometry. And all this is happening while you’re trying to shape an identity; your body is changing, and your emotions are running wild.” (Rose 28)
Just like Richard Rodriguez one can have struggles with school and home, for instance at home one is taught to speak their mind, told that everyone will understand. At home formal does not exist; serious and organized is an option. Yet at school one must learn to think before speaking, to raise your hand and to make sure you sound just like everyone else. At school one is taught to not make a fool out of themselves, to be serious and formal to be just like everybody else. But yet again as a student, although one has been taught to be like everyone else, one can still feel like an outsider, like Rodriguez describes you still don’t fit in. As a student one must learn the difference between formal and informal and when to use both, for some students like me formal and serious might be the only way to socialize. And just like Rodriguez one
The high schools are made up of cliques and the artificial intensity of a world defined by insiders and outsiders. (Botstein pg.20) The insiders hold control. over the outsiders because of good looks, popularity, and sports power; the teacher. and staff do nothing to stop them, the elite.
Jennifer is a Caucasian American female who is moving away from her friends and family to attend college. Leaving one’s friends and family is a situation that many may struggle with. There were certain aspects of Jennifer’s life that could eventually impede her from fully adapting to her new college environment. The most significant aspect is the fact that Jennifer has not been away from home a lot with the exception of two vacations. Though vacationing can be a good way to become more cultured, she has never been away from her family, or far from her home town. Jennifer is from Winslow, Maine (usa.com). The city of Winslow is a predominantly Caucasian American area, and the areas she has visited on vacations are not far from there and have similar demographics. Jennifer also went to a smaller high school so she would have to get use to the large and diverse campus population. Jennifer’s roommate could have helped her make a smoother transition because she is familiar with larger peer groups due to her high school population. Jennifer also states that she is not as outgoing as should would like to be so meeting new friends will be difficult for her. Jennifer did not join any groups on campus right away so she was not able to make friends as fast as Kerri, which caused her to spend a lot of time alone.
I pretty much felt like an outcast when I began high school. Most of my classmates still had their friends from middle school, whereas mine went to the neighboring high school. Having social anxiety really didn’t help me either. It was hard for me to make eye contact with others or even bother to introduce myself to new people. In the first few weeks of high school, something had caught my eye. There were flyers advertising auditions for ‘The Little Mermaid’ production. Taking the risk, I decided to audition. Through the auditorium doors there was a grey table with upperclassmen talking to other students. Located on the table were different character scripts and a clipboard for signing in. One of the strangers approached
I am Monise Ghandchi. I am a 17-Year-Old persian girl who holds many personalities. I am energetic, athletic, generous, loud, quiet, innocent, guilty, and etc. However, the youths i grew up with narrowed my presence down to one thought. A single story. Although i’ve wondered, I never actually knew why people at my school wouldn 't interact with me since I’ve always been extremely friendly and generous towards anyone who got to know me. Then again, not many people tried to get to know me. I remember trying so hard to make friends that i have even straight up asked other kids if i could be their best friend. All they would do is give me an odd look and brush it off, ignore me, or shout at me until i went away. Needless to say, my strategies of not
Middle school was immensely difficult time for me. I had glasses and braces and in sixth and seventh grade went through an exceedingly at a maladroit stage. My comrades did an exceptional job of making those two years a living Tartarus. I’m currently twenty-one, but I still cringe when I contemplate about some of the unpleasant incidents I suffered with other kids during those years. I was a marvelous athlete. The only time the “cool kids” would be “semi-nice” is when I was tremendously superb at basketball. In the 8th grade I transferred schools to a Christian school and began to come out of my awkward looking phase. I received contacts and extracted my braces. It would seem that I would be awarded some confidence at this, but my self-esteem was nevertheless damaged. I made several friends and was in no way speculated there as “the ...
If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood
On October 29th Saturday, I participated in a volunteer opportunity with the democratic campaign. The office had more than 20 people, some of them were making phone calls. I received a package with a map, a list of people’s name, address, and other basic information about the person. My duty was knocking those people’s doors and ask them “who are you going to vote?” “Do you have any things that you want to say about the society?” I do not have a car so they assigned me to the place which is located in walking distance from Beloit College. A married couple who were at the office offered me a ride to Campus. Both of them are in their 50’s. They told me that they have a friend who is now teaching at a university in Tokyo, Japan. The lady also had been to Japan in 1980 as a student. Her husband did not talk much.
For my entire pre-college education, I attended Evangel Heights Christian Academy. Despite our constant complaints about dress code and school lunches, we as students all appreciate the pleasant atmosphere that Evangel Heights offers. Although a great school offering a solid Christian education and providing teachers that genuinely cares for their students, Evangel Heights often traps students in a sheltered environment where students build a wall shielding themselves from surrounding schools and communities. I perceived this fact when I realized that several of my friends in high school did not know anyone outside of their own family and the sixty students in the high school. Even though I generally consider myself to be a passive and introverted individual, I was encouraged to break my comfort zone because of the benefits that I could gain in the plethora
My pre-calculus teacher walks forward with a large stack of papers and hands me an overturned test - normally a sign of bad results. I flip the packet over and I’m devastated by what I see. On this single math exam, I receive the worst grade I’ve ever had in a class - a 56. At first, I think that everybody failed, and that maybe there’d be a curve. But as my partner receives his test back, I quickly realize I’m wrong.
Throughout my high school experience, I've been able to obtain knowledge that I can use to better my life. Some of the classes I've taken have been a blessing in disguise. For example, I never expected to learn as much as I did about writing and literature by just simply reading. Many of my teachers have pushed me to my limits and inspired me to think differently from my peers. In general my best English experience was reading "MacBeth" by William Shakespeare in Mr. Elwell's class, where I also realized I had many English skills to improve on.
During fourth and fifth grade, I was among the group of kids that were at the top of the school. All of the younger children looked up to us and copied the actions that they saw us doing. These we the last years for the fun and games for me. My work would later get more difficult since I made the transition from easy work to the more difficult. These were the last years that we had recess after lunch. We would no longer have one teacher teaching us every subject. For all of elementary school I was at Upson which is now known as Shoreview Elementary. I think that every year someone looked out for me because I was always blessed enough to have the good teachers for each particular grade. These teachers always saw potential in me and from a young age they always told me that they knew that I would do great
Ernest Hemingway said that “All things truly wicked start from innocence”. I totally concur with this sentence and myself experienced what is called “truly wicked”. When I was in preschool, I was really popular, every teacher like me. Teachers constantly would give me gifts which are almost impossible in China, and teachers always will give me the best thing. Some of them even bring me with when she was dating, any way I was really popular in the preschool. However, everything had changed when I went to elementary school. In China we always get a big class, my class has 62 people in it, therefore teachers did not pay more attention to me, which makes me really down. My classmate generally in two groups, one is the get-100-every-test group, those nerd, another is never-over-60 group, who never studies, and do