Mrs. Reidenbaugh
Humanities 6/7
30 May 2008
In a time span of two years, I had very many changes occur in my life. One of the biggest changes was the respect or the treatment toward me throughout my eighth and ninth grade year. The classmates that I had in eighth grade were the same in ninth grade, but their change from bullying me to treating me like a person. In the three months between my eighth and ninth grade years, I learned who I really am, and who my friends really are.
One of the reasons that this change in feeling toward me occured was that I played football. This caused a change because in eighth grade, none of my classmates believed that I would last. However, I went against all odds and played the sport that I loved. During my eighth grade year, many of my classmates also believed that if I did indeed play football, I would quit by two-a-days. Again I proved them wrong by making it all the way through the season. All of this changed their view because the people during middle school thought that I would not do anything because I was "soft, and weak". All of this did not stop me like they hoped, but motivated me to prove them wrong.
Another reason that changed their feeling was that I able to go through all of this and take the reality that my brother had enlisted and left for the Marine Corps. The person that had motivated me to not deal with people picking on me, and stand up for myself, had left. This made me want to work harder for him, and make him proud of me when he came home. This proved to people that I have dedication, pride, and heart.
Between the years of my eighth and nineth grade year, I learned that no matter what happens, I have a friend with me. The lesson I learned from this is trust. I learned that I have to be able to have trust in someone to be good friends with them. Another lesson that I learned from having friends is that I have to be able to be myself. If my friends don't like the true me, then they don't like me. If this is true, then people may talk bad about me behind my back.
During my eighth grade year at Dominion, I was the main target of eveyone to bully. From this I learned that I cannot trust eveyone, just the ones that I know are my true friends. Also from being the victim to most bullies in eighth grade, I learned that I needed to be able to face my fears. In ninth grade, this lead to me being able to play sports and not be afriad of someone who is criticing me. I learned who my friends really were by being able to watch all of them carefully while I was around them.
Going into ninth grade, I did not believe that so many people would be behind me. Others did not see much, but I saw an improvement from my eighth grade year. I saw people who saw a change in me. That change was that I was not going to let them pick on me anymore. Instead, I would stand my ground and not take it. Although they were the same people to others they were different to me from the people I knew in eighth grade, to the people in ninth grade.
