Opening Up to the Right People Helped Me
Some names have been changed Going into high school, I had my guard up. I was just coming home from two years in foster care and I was quiet and slow to trust. I was able to make friends, but I suffered a few betrayals. The first one was by a “friend” named Dustine. Since I was 11, I knew that I was […]
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Bullying and Jealousy Made Me Into Someone I Didn’t Like
Names have been changed. Being bullied and losing a friend made me loud and obnoxious. By high school, when I realized what I had become, it was hard to change. It started in elementary school. In kindergarten I had a good friend, Sam, and we did everything together. But in 1st grade, we began learning […]
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Wondering About Where I Fit In
For the first six years of my life, I grew up on the island of Trinidad. I spoke with an accent, pronouncing three as “tree.” I ate Carribean food like roti, aloo pies, and pelau. I was accustomed to drinking water straight out of a coconut, eating mangoes from my grandfather’s mango tree, encounters with […]
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Smoking Weed to Fit in
Names have been changed. When I started 7th grade, I became insecure about my body. My friends were more developed physically than I was and got more attention from boys. I was taller and skinnier than they were. This insecurity was all in my mind. I was often told that I was pretty by other […]
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