Personal Narrative: A Fat Guy's First Day

To many freshman the first day of high school is the opening chapter of a new novel, a fresh start to a sometimes embarrassing middle school experience we would all just love to erase from our memories. August 13th, 2012 was the beginning of my four year long narrative at Cypress Bay High School. Despite my desperate desire to grow up, become an adult, and move far away from my parents for college all that did not seem possible because I had never previously attended a public school. I was struck with fear that I would not be able to adjust to the fast pace dynamics of a large high school.

You're so nervous and excited for your first day of high school EVER, you barely got any sleep and you're already wide awake by the time your alarm, was supposed to go off, but it didn’t You start getting ready, hair, face, outfit. Oh and speaking of outfits, you probably have yours planned out a month before school started. You have to walk to the bus stop and when your bus arrives you are in shock, it is full of kids from every grade possible, it's a mixing bowl, a bit of freshman, with 2 teaspoons of sophomores and a cup of junior and a little sprinkle of seniors. You scan it to see if your friends are on the bus but as usual, you are a loner so you sit in the 3 row. Your first mistake happened already, you sat in the boys’ section and soon later, you realize your mistake, so you just slowly go to the girls’ section hoping no one realized it.

Finally, I am finished with middle school. Anxiously thinking about the first day of high school, I knew that it would be hectic and wild, but I was ecstatic. Of course, the night before I could not sleep. I lay awake dreaming about how my first day at John Paul II will go. How will it be meeting new people and seeing old friends from last year? Will high school be hard? Will I get lost? I kept thinking about the unknown and worst possible outcomes. My first day of high school was unexpected.

Walking into school on my first day of high school, I felt out of place. My face covered in acne, my teeth covered in braces, and the callicks in my hair stuck up through the abnormally thick layer of hair gel that coated them. My middle school social anxiety still ruled over me as I could barely speak with any member of the opposite sex. Yet, I still had an odd confidence about me. I had always been one of the best students in my class, even without ever studying for a test. I viewed high school as a slight uptick from the curriculum I had easily passed in middle school. I was wrong. High school exists as a microcosm of society, in which I originally failed to acclimate myself to the challenges posed to me in a setting of increased

Let’s jump ahead again, this time to my first day of school. Morris Knolls High School is one of the top high schools in the US. Their curriculum is rigorous and their standards are sky high. Also, this was a completely new environment for me. I didn’t know how high school worked and this wasn’t the type of town I was used to. Living in suburbia and attending a school with different demographics than I was used to scared me. I now lived 30 minutes away from everything I grew up around. But the thought of having a fresh start excited me. No one knew me, I was a nobody and therefore free to completely change myself.

The obnoxious beeping of my alarm woke me from my deep sleep. There I was standing in front of the mirror getting ready for my first day of high school. The deep thoughts flooded into my head like a river. “Who am I going to be?” “Are people going to like me for me?” (SV) “What’s class going to be like?” As I thought quietly that morning I decided to make a promise to myself...

I know that it doesn’t appear to be such a big deal, but just the thought of having to start fresh in the middle of high school had been enough to send shivers down my spine. I wasn’t sure that I was ready to be a Rockingham County High School Cougar. I walked in on the first day, on the outside looking collected, but on the inside I was shaking like a loose leaf being tossed around on a branch in the middle of autumn. “What if I don’t meet anyone? What

I’d been obese for years. At an annual check up my doctor told my mother “Your son weighs … 165 pounds.” Compared to my last visit I was 150 pounds. The yearly check-ups showed that I didn’t get where I wanted to be. My mother reassured me that we’ll lose the excess; it didn’t happen. The next year, 165 turned into 190, then 220. Finally reaching a maximum of 250 pounds. I had to learn to change my habits to fight my obesity.

I will never forget the words a guy named Johnny said to me when I decided to take the initiative to alter my entire life. Johnny, who I barely knew up to this point of my junior year of high school, approached me and in a hallway packed with students, told me I was fat as hell. I will most certainly never forget the faces of the bastards laughing hysterically as he continued his tirade. “Worthless… shitty…. bastard…. POS” (just to name a few). While some kids expressed concern and asked if I was okay, even though I know they didn’t mean it, most others just jovially agreed with him, not caring how it made me feel. Some even joined in the assault. Honestly, I wanted to punch him in his face right then and there.

“Ahh...Middle School. So I guess the phrase “they grow up so fast” seems true. I can finally start acting like a mature young adult so to say. But there’s one problem: I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. The night before I just came back from Florida thinking that it would be a piece of cake. BUT I WAS WRONG. Here’s how it went down or at least how I think it went down. One warm crispy September morning I woke up ready to enjoy another day of summer vacation when I realized middle school was starting. I started to panic thinking to myself, “I missed orientation so I have no idea what to do. What will everyone think of me. What if I can’t open my locker?” I get nervous on the first day of school and I broke out in a cold sweat. I was so

Actually you're the opposite of “bad” or “weak” , you’re one of the strongest witches in this century. You take pride in that title!

At the end of eighth grade year, I was ready for high school with all of the new experiences and challenges that comes along with it that it brings. Throughout the summer I had participated in activities that allowed me to become familiar with the school and some of the students. Unfortunately, school didn’t start good at all. All the amazing people I had gotten to know during the summer, I didn’t have any classes with. On top of that, I am such a pariah in my EGE class. From the first week of school I knew that connecting with my fellow peers in that class was going to be a challenge because

I come from a family that is not very active and obesity runs in my family with my parents and grandparents, from a young age I was told to make sure I lived my life well so that I didn’t have to endure the struggle that my parents and grandparents do with weight. I was an active child outside, but I was never involved in sports. In fifth grade I joined a YMCA volleyball team because I was interested in volleyball and I had peers that played volleyball. I continued to play in sixth grade too for my West Orient Middle School team, we got first place overall that year; but then I took a break and started track in eighth grade.

Well as I know when you enter a new school you need to survive because you need to make new friends some people are going to talk to you because you don’t have friends in the room or in the school, the hard thing is when you are in lunch and you are alone because you don't have friends to talk some people are going to sit with you and they are going to talk with you. I know survive is hard in the new school, because everyone is looking at you, and you don’t know everyone, and some people start making faces to you because you don’t have friends in the school. Survive can be hard and easy, because you need to talk right to the teachers, and to the students, like me, when it was first day in school i don’t know everyone and I don’t have friends in the classroom. So i need to survive and make new friends, and i need to talk right to the teachers, because they get mad when you don’t talk right to them. So it was so hard to me to survive that room because people will

Imagine freshman me, 5’3, 103 lbs and uncomfortably dressed in clothes my mother chose for me to wear. Yes, this was me on the very first day of my entire high school career. I didn’t go to the high school orientation before the first day so I had no clue where anything was. And of course during first period I was called down to the main office and I didn’t even know where that was either. I felt awkward and embarrassed that I had to ask a teacher where the front office was; it even feels dumb saying it now.