Personal Narrative: Gravity And Judging People

few friends in elementary school, but by high school was perceived as strange and a loner by his

I was a very shy kid. Making friends wasn’t my cup of tea when I was younger. Based on this you can imagine how nervous I was when we moved. Joseph Campbell wrote in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, “It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.” I was preparing to start school again in August when I decided it would be smart to begin associating with kids my age in the area; so, I began spending time with my cousin Lief. After spending some time with Lief, he introduced me to some of his friends and taught me to how to appreciate

At the beginning of twelfth grade, I met a group of people through a mutual friend. I did not enjoy being around such a large group at first, and I

I oftentimes find that competition fosters the closest of relationships. This was how I came to know my close friend and classmate, Travis Bowman. I was 11 years old and had just moved to a new school. As a child, I was exceptionally shy. I didn’t stand out from my peers, and I had no experience in making new friends. I found that the friends I had before were founded off my parents’ friends’ children, thus I felt quite alone. An area I did manage to shine in however, was my academics. Upon moving to a new school, I felt threatened. My status as the class star was challenged by another. I did not know how to deal with this situation. Should I consider him a mortal enemy and spend the next years competing against him? Should I try to befriend

Junior year was the year that I was elected at Konawaena High School's Student Body Corresponding Secretary and the junior class Vice President. With these two major responsibilities, I found it difficult to balance the duties of an officer, school assignments, and having a job. I found myself prioritizing my roles as an officer over my school work, which you can only imagine did not work out so well. Throughout the school year I realized that I almost became a zealot about student activities, and this is where things in my social life went wrong, or so I thought. Friends of mine since the very beginning starred to become nothing but familiar faces, and soon enough, nothing but memories. I then began looking at the priorities of my "friends" and the priorities that I had for myself. They did not seem to match up. I soon found myself with a new group of people on

They would always get into new things, like a movie or a show, pretty much anything, and I felt like I had to get into that specific point of interest, even if I didn't enjoy it myself, in order to converse with them. It was very difficult to talk to them unless you knew about what they were talking about, and it would somehow always focus on that specific topic, even if the subject gets changed slightly. Sometimes, I even felt like some of my interests were ignored, which didn't feel good and made my experiences with them less enjoyable. Even when I finally manage to get myself into their current interest, they seem to move on to a new one almost immediately. There was also pointless angst as well as drama in that friend group, and all of that didn't make the friendship easier for me. I didn't leave the group because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, plus I felt that I would be judged and my social life there could be ruined at Quest if I tried. I wasn't worried because I cared about what many people there thought of me, I just felt like it would cause problems when trying to work on group projects with people. To this day, this is still a decision I regret. This is because later on in my second year here I found another friend group with less drama and pressure than my original one. Due to me being scared, however, I didn't get to hang out with them much. It makes me disappointed that my

We both went to high school, and even more relatable, we both have medical issues and we both switched high schools. Headed into my freshman year I underwent surgery because of a tumor which was found in my cervical spine. The surgery left my right arm in complete paralysis. My first day of high school left me looking pretty pathetic. Walking in with half my face unresponsive due to nerve damage, a neck brace, and my right arm being controlled by the breeze, did not help me gain friends. People avoided me, I couldn’t tell if it was because they were afraid of breaking me more or because they didn’t want to be seen with me. Things started to change when a few of the seniors began to talk to me, and the teachers started to know me. I gained more friends through the process of social capital. Because of my new ties I was able to expand my group, so when went back for surgery in New York a whole class of people put together a “get well soon” package. High school was looking doable, but I was then presented with an option to transfer schools. The decision was hard, but I transferred. This new school would present me with more opportunities, just like Arnold’s new high school presented him with more opportunities, but just like him my old high school friends and school itself resented me. These changes in my life put me in new subcultures as well, which

I’m walking in the hallway coming back from music class, and I see my best friend Erdem inputting his locker combination. What else would I do but mess him up? He doesn’t do anything, so I do it again, and it’s hilarious to both of us. Then, my other friend Justin comes up to us, and he laughs. We’re all laughing because we can mess with each other and not get mad. I have many friends in Demarest Middle School that I can mess with or be weird with, and they wouldn’t judge or make fun of me. In the past, it didn’t occur to me that I could actually make friends and not be a social outcast in a new school. Well, I did.

Three years ago I was in seventh grade at Greendale Middle School. I had a significant amount of friends, but not all of them treated me with kindness. Margaret, Makenzie, Jennifer, Alyssa, Autumn , and Shelby were all considered my close friends. Even in third grade Margaret and Mackenzie were known as the popular girls in our school; soon after I moved to Cincinnati I found out that they were not very welcoming.

My freshman year is where it all started. I stuck with my quieter friends from middle school instead of the more extroverted ones. I did not think much of it at the time, as I was not as self-aware about who they were. I talked to them and they considered me to be their friend for a while. During that period, I gradually became more open-minded and began to realize who they were and why they acted the way they did. Unfortunately, it had been a while since I talked to my outgoing friends, so I was

The way I see it, everyone carries something. Some carry the weight of ten-thousand men, and others, well, they carry small bundles. I have been carrying a concoction of things throughout my life. It started with anxiety, when I was six. I can see myself carrying that metaphorical hobo-style bag now. When I was ten, I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Now I was carrying a backpack, and by fourteen, I was carrying full hiking gear with depression. At eighteen, I carried my hiking gear and then some, because now my seemingly awkward mannerisms had a name; Aspergers.

For as long as I can remember I’ve had the same group of friends, but coming into high school I met a lot of new people. I met some of my best friends here and my boyfriend.I’ve reached out to a lot of different people I didn’t really expect to be friends with. I learned that you really can’t judge a book by a cover and that probably sounds cliche, but some of the people I thought I’d never get along with became some of my really good friends.

During this stage, I started to develop feelings of dislike or even hatred for another classmate. For example, there was one of the classmates that used to hit me, punch me, and bullied. I hate the kid because he took advantage of me.

The thing is that people judge you for how old you are. So, I stripped my age from my profile and all of my bios. I only mention it in answers now. Only someone who follows me or has read the right answer will know that I’m a teen.

I’ve been in school for 13 years of my life ,i grew up with most of the same kids; We were a huge family almost, everyone always looked out for eachother.  I was participating in a lot  activities. Since the beginning of freshman year, I participated 3 years of color guard, i met new people with the same interest as me. Almost every friday we had a football game and Saturday's was our competition days; we all bonded as a section when we all got ready and did each others makeup. Then,