Taylor Harris
English 101 Pre-Writing Essay August 23, 2016 Stevens High School Being an outsider is never fun, especially when it’s for a quality that a person has no control over. I never had to experience this until I moved to San Antonio, Texas. Since my first day of school I have been around the same people.; I have always known what to say and how to act, but when I started school in San Antonio, I was ostracized for nine months of my life. Being classified as an “outsider” made me understand how not to judge others, how to be my true self, and how to appreciate the people in my life. My parents and I had been to San Antonio twice prior to making the move. Once in 2006 and once in 2012 for my two older brothers’ Air Force Basic Training graduations. I completed eighth grade in Missouri and in October of 2013 the move was final. Moving was exciting; my family and I were ready for new experiences, new faces, and new places. The weather was better and the places were far more exciting than ones in Missouri. The only thing that I was concerned with was having to start at a new school which had over four thousand students in attendance.schools were all much larger than any in Missouri. I started at John Paul Stevens High School in November of that same year. This school was easily the largest school I had ever seen, let alone attended, and to say that I was nervous would be an understatement. My first day involved walking around aimlessly with not the slightest idea of where I was supposed to be, and in between every class I was stopping at the counselor’s office to ask for directions. Although I was slowly becoming accustomed to the rush the school brought with transitioning from class to class, I never got used to the hustle of four thousand students moving at one time. After about a month, I had created friendships with two girls, Ashley and Nickie, who often were late to their own classes simply to make sure I made it to my own on time. A majority of people who I met were Hispanic, as is almost all of San Antonio. I was one of an extreme few at that school that were white, which is one thing that within just a month, I had been judged for more times than I ever could have imagined. Ashley and Nickie were two girls who initiated a friendship with me because they knew I was struggling to find my place and they understood that although I looked different, I deserved a chance. As time went on, I became more aware that as I was walking through the halls that I had been receiving strange looks from other students. I began to pay attention to how many “white-jokes” were made throughout each day. In my classes, my peers were either Hispanic or African-American. I was invited to a quinceanera; I barely knew what that was. I eventually told myself that I would do what it took to fit in and make “friends” while I was there in hopes that this feeling of being judged would go away. I started to try and talk to more people and find something about them that I could relate to. I tried turning myself into someone that they would want to be around and began making friends with people I didn’t even see on a daily basis. Before I realized, I was being rude to teachers and peers and I was no longer the one being judged, but the one doing the judging. This went on for about a month, until I finally soon realized that this was not me; this was not who I am. I wanted to be the type of person who was true to who she was and who was not afraid to show that. I asked myself if this is the type of person that I would want to be around, and upon finding the answer, I began to untangle the mess I had made. I was told my parents and I would be moving back to Missouri while I was making up credits in summer school. I then told my newfound friends, who decided they would host a small “going-away” party. Jonika, a friend which I had connected with through choir, asked her mother to take Ashley, Jonika, and me to the mall and let us spend our last day together. The three of us ended up leaving with personalized friendship bracelets, sweet tea, and a copious amount of snacks. When we returned to my house, Jonika’s mom surprised me with an entire bag of more objects to remember them by such as books, letters, pictures, and even a balloon with a stuffed animal on the end. I felt as if I had made lifelong relationships with not only these two girls, but each of the people who had introduced me to the feeling of true friendship. It occurred to me on the two-day drive back home that I had made real friendships while living in Texas, regardless of the obvious and not-so-obvious differences that were shared. I returned to Missouri with a new sense of what it meant to create a real relationship. San Antonio was filled with everlasting memories and lessons that I will be able to carry throughout my life forever. Through the many obstacles that I had to overcome, I learned what it meant to be accepting of others, to be the person I am meant to be, and to be appreciative of the people I meet.
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