Throughout my elementary school years I had always felt a part of the group. I liked all of my classmates, teachers, and of course the friends I made. I was fairly good at schoolwork and made friends easily. The school I attended was one of the many public schools in my county. This school was different than others however, because many of my classmates parents lived in town and their parents made a fair amount of incomes. I had friends that were in older grades because I had an older brother and tended to mingle with other children ranging from my age group to around four years older than me. All of the children and I that I lived near had a 40 minute bus ride into school every morning. Over this time I bonded with the children who sat around me and became friends with them. I went to school and loved every minute of it. I loved to learn and spend quality time with my friends. That was until my family moved and it forced me to transfer schools.
At this school I fit in more based on my parents’ salary. The year I had to switch schools I was extremely happy to find out one of my former classmates had as well and we were in the same fifth grade class. The two of us automatically sat together and began talking. I thought that this school would be nothing different than my beloved school before and we started to discuss if we knew anyone else that we could introduce each other to. Michael already knew my older brother who was in Jr. High upstairs so there was no point in discussing him. I did have two younger cousins that I now lived across the road from and were in a kindergarten and fourth grade. I planned to introduce him to them at our first recess opportunity. Michael had a cousin that went to this school as well. Emilee however was not as pleased as the two of us to meet me. I had unknowingly taken the seat she had wanted next to him because she as well was in our class. I tried to apologize and sit somewhere else but unfortunately she had already moved and was sitting with a group of girls.
This is the first time I had ever experienced another individual being mad at me for something in school. I assumed that we would meet, I would apologize, and we would become good friends like Michael and I. I sat excitedly hoping for my old friend to like my little cousin and his cousin to like me as well. Our recess started out the two of us walking down the hallway where we spotted Clayton. They instantly became friends and were planning an extreme session of dodge ball. They began picking teams in the line while waiting to go outside. When the teachers finally let us outside it was like a zoo, literally other children ran through the playground for their favorite swing, monkey bar, or see-saw. I stood with the two boys waiting for Emilee and the rest of the dodge ball participants. When she emerged with her group of friends I felt this was the best time to apologize. When I walked up to her I began with a small smile. By the end of the encounter I was on the verge of tears.
When I approached her the group of girls were laughing. I thought nothing of this until I was on the edge of their circle. They all turned around abruptly and looked down at me. As a child I was very short and still am not tall so this was a natural reaction that I was accustomed to. The look on their faces is what made me take a small step back. I opened my mouth to start to apologize and that is when she handed me a note Emilee said “just read this.”
I had never had an interaction like this before so I took the note and walked away without apologizing. I realized this as I walked away and turned around and said to Emilee “I’m really sorry I took your seat this morning, I didn’t know you were Michael’s cousin, we are just friends from Lincoln.” Emilee replied with “whatever just read the note.” I walked away still stunned by the way she had reacted. After I read the note I was in tears. Luckily I had gone to the ladies room to read it. Sitting there in the stall for the first time I had received a letter that full of how much she and her friends did not like anything about me. They called me names like “boy lover, and long-haired freak.” I never went outside that day to play dodge ball and knew that I would get an earful from Clayton on our bus ride home. I lied to him saying that I had homework that had to be done. He let it go and asked if we would be riding our 4-wheelers when we got home. To this I had the response he hated most of all, “I think I am just going to ride Dollar, do you want to ride Platters?” This was a way to include him and know that he would not join. Clayton hated horses and refused to even come over while I was riding. He made the response I was expecting “No way! If you get done before mom and Aunt Ally get home come over and we will ride 4-wheelers.” Our mothers rode to work with each other and we tried to get all of our fun done before they came home and made us do homework and nightly chores such as dishes and vacuuming.
I did not ride anything that day. Instead I waited for my mom to get home concentrating on my homework and making it look as girly as possible. When she came in that day she instantly knew something was wrong because I had already fed all the animals, did all of mine and Tyler’s chores, the house was spotless, and I had my homework done. Mom came into my room where I was laying on my bed with my stuffed animal “Lamby” crying her response was to hold me and ask “what did your brother do?” She like I had never expected that it was something wrong at school. I explained to her everything that had happened and even showed her the note. My mom held me that night and explained to me that people are not always nice to people they don’t know. She said that when they actually got to know me things would be better. I cried and said I didn’t want to go back to school there but she made me.
I am very grateful she did this it made me a stronger person. She never called the school and complained about how I was treated by other students instead I made these girls get to know me. I stayed at this school for the last year of elementary school and throughout Jr. High. The school district changed which schools a lot of my friends from Lincoln went to and they ended up at Shawswick with me during Jr. High. This worked out perfectly because I made sure that no one treated my friend like the way Emilee and her friends treated me. I introduced them to my friends that I knew they would get along with and explained first off how we had gone to school with each other all throughout elementary school. It may have been easier for them to transition because they were in a group but I will never forget how some of the people that are my best friends treated me when I was the new kid. They made me feel embarrassed and left out of their group.
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