Personal Narrative: An Outsider

I’ve always wondered what the outside world was like. As a cooter turtle, I’ve been living inside the same old glass walls filled with unnatural water. It felt like prison. No matter how much I swam, I would see the exact same things over and over again- small rocks, plants, and two other strange objects that I couldn’t identify. My turtle mate, River, had guessed that one of the strange objects were probably a human object used to keep the water “clean”. I found that kind of strange since the water was never clean anyway. River was a Red-Eared slider and was a few inches smaller than me. Or at least I thought he was. I’ve always thought of him as a scaredy fish because he always ran away from everything. Whenever the Twoleg came towards us, he would dash away like as if he saw a ghost, and whenever I asked him why he was so afraid, he would refuse to answer.

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

Every since I came to this city I have been feeling like a stranger. It is difficult to leave your hometown, what you are used to, and go to some weird city you have never been to before.

Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Pow Pow Pow. The gun shots cracked into the air as loud as thunder. One after another. We live day by day not knowing our end. In the blink of an eye our lives can be changed forever. Its life, yet even in knowing this we never expect tragedy to find us. We never expect it to affect our lives and the people we know and love. I’m going to share with you the day tragedy found my life.

I’ve always been an outsider, it’s been hard for me to build friendships and relationships. Not too long ago, there I sat in the corner of the room in the way back, trying to hide from the world, and be myself. I didn’t really want to get involved with anything or anyone. I was afraid to open up, talk to others, maybe because I was afraid to get rejected. Until, I met the best people I could ever meet, my best friends Marisa Mendoza, Jessica Contreras and Deseray Reyes, the ones who up to this day have sticked by my side, at my best, and worst moments. They have all been a big part of my life, I can enjoy every minute I spend with them. For me, they aren’t only my friends they are like my sisters.

When it comes to what separates me from other teenagers, there would be quite a bit to tell. I would say a major difference which separates me from my peers is my love for barbershop harmony music. I do not have a quartet of my own; however, I love to sing barbershop tags with other friends at church. I set myself apart from the world because of my beliefs: as a New Testament christian, I believe the bible gives us all instruction concerning spiritual matters.

Much of my life I have been an outsider. One could not tell this by solely looking at my life. I have a well-established friend group and was Prom Queen on top of that. I am also an officer of various clubs, which could not happen if I was disliked by my peers. If one looked closely, and had an almost omnipresent view of my life, they would see that despite these accomplishments, I have wandered through much of my life feeling alone.

An outsider is someone that doesn’t belong in a particular organization or group, the orphan boy and the elk dog is a story that talks about an outsider boy that’s rejected by everyone around him because of his disabilities and difference between him and everyone around him. My personal experience about being an outsider happened 4 years ago and it was a very tough experience that I hope I’d never go through again.

My whole life I’ve felt like an outsider. When I was younger dealing with a learning disability, I have had a hard time making and keeping friends even to this day. I struggle with being a follower instead of a leader. My own adoptive father verbally abused me growing up and I also had kids in fifth-sixth grade who constantly bullied me. I still am reminded of an instance when the first day of fifth grade approached: I got on the bus and these older girls started making fun of my pants saying, “She’s wearing high-waters.” I was humiliated in front of my peers every day since than during those two years. After being bullied for so long I made a vow to myself to never forget the pain inflicted upon me on a daily basis.

I chose to break the norm of either smiling at strangers or giving them a neutral look when you make eye contact. I decided to give every stranger I passed a confused look like they had just spoken to me in another language. I must admit, this made me feel a bit goofy. I was on the fence as to whether or not to do this in the first place but I decided I just had to. The responses I received were quite comical. A few people asked if I was alright, and one person even asked if I had a problem with them.

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 by their peers because they have a different

My friend ,Kendrick, is diligent and self-sufficent.He gives his best effort at everything that he does.One time Kendrick and I were at school walking to the cafeteria to have lunch. Before we opened the door to enter ,we was stopped by Mr.Douglas. Mr.Douglas was Kendrick's R.O.T.C instructor who had a high rank as sergeant major. He stopped us to talk to Kendrick about some important R.O.T.C business.

I am the outsider. I attended beginner sailing camp with my brother, Kent. I had never stepped foot on a sailboat while my brother had sailed since the previous fall. He knew all the instructors because they were fellow high school sailors. I was in a whole different world: the sailing world. New terms like “line” instead of “rope” was being drilling into my head. All instructors and Kent continuously said, “There is no rope on a boat, only line.” The bonding of Kent and the high school instructors made me jealous and envious of their relationship. At that time I was the outsider, who knew nothing about sailing.

There are a lot of things that shape a person, A loss, A gain, or maybe a quest they undertook. Now I’m not talking about a quest to save the world like you might read in books, or watch in a movie. I’m talking about a goal you might strive to achieve or something you want to accomplish to learn more about not only yourself, but the people who surround you or the community you might live in. This is my quest, a quest that took me years to understand, but one that defines me as a person. A quest that showed me how to express my opinions, and to let others do the same.

Yesterday in Language Arts class was very awesome. The class got to go outside and me and Jesse were walking down the hall, when Jesse saw his little brother.