“You’re Weird”

I’ve always been called weird by my classmates and especially by the group that my old friends joined. 

I thought that if I joined I could rekindle the friendship between my old friends. I was not able to do that, but I did make a new friend due to a lego building competition. In the past two years when we had the competition I always won first place, so me and my friend decided to compete as a team this year. We won second place this year, but nonetheless we were excited.

Because of That I thought I had a chance to become even more assimilated into the group and be friends with everyone. But instead they all started to alienate me. The guy who I thought was my friend was actually using me to win the competition and everyone else was mad because they couldn’t beat me. They all thought I was weird and that they didn’t want to be seen having the “weird kid” hanging out with them so they would never give me my turn or never choose me to be on a team.

That’s why I left the group and instead joined the one next to them with people a grade lower than me, there they accepted me and my weirdness. This went on for the rest of the year until I was once again by myself again.

“Nemesis”

All the way back in elementary school I had a friend that I would play with and we were pretty good friends for a while. But then one day, someone that I didn’t know started playing with us too, and everything seemed fine at the time. However, I realized after a few weeks that the new guy was trying to steal my friend away, from then on it became a rivalry between us two for the attention of our friend. 

From then on every week would be just us going after each other, trying to take our friend away from each other. At that point I absolutely hated the other guy and I tried so much to get at him and he did the same to me. Near the end of the year our friend had to move which sort of ended my conflict with my nemesis.

Then the day came where our grade went out to the field to have a play day since it was nearing the end of school. Unexpectedly, the guy I hated approached me and asked if I wanted to play together which left me confused, but I reluctantly agreed since I didn’t really have anything to do. We hung out for the rest of the day and I started to wonder why I hated him so much.

The answer became clear when we were talking and we realized that the reason why we hated each other was because our “friend” was manipulating us to hate each other. He would tell both sides that either one of us were the enemy and he would purposefully put us at odds for fun. The realization made me not hate the guy anymore, but instead gave us a mutual bond. From then on he has been my best friend from all the way since 4th grade.

“Pure Chance”

There have been many times that I have wondered why I do what I do. The answer for me is always by pure coincidence. Everything that I like to do now is stuff that I didn’t ever think I would do, but still did it just because of a slight bit of interest.

I joined band in 6th grade only because one of my friends was in band and they had a table to sign up. I didn’t think too much about it and I just signed it just to see what it was. After that I started to develop a passion for music and now I still play in band.

The same thing can be said about track. We had track for PE and during class I did pretty well, so I decided to join the middle school track team. I ended up really loving track and won 1st in a few of my events. So when I had the opportunity to join the track team in high school I decided why not.

I feel like this idea of singular events in your life that changes everything is portrayed really well in the movie Yes Man. The basic Idea of the movie is that the main character is forced to join a self help group that believed in never so no, this led to him doing everything that he never thought he would do. It shows that you life is made up of all the opportunities that you said yes to.

“Pioneer”

For the longest time I never did anything just because other people were doing it. I only do things by my accord. I guess that is why I was always called weird. But that is also what makes me special. I pursue things that people look at and think “Those guys are weird” or “That’s too difficult”. I do almost everything which means I never fully fit with any specific stereotype, yet I also fit into many of them.

Freshman year, I did both band and track and field. The coach said that everybody that has done both have been overwhelmed or performed poorly and that nobody who’s done both has ever won a league title. However I took that as a challenge. I was able to get straight A in all my advanced classes such as algebra 2 trigonometry, which is two years ahead of normal people. I was also able to participate in band, and become the first person to win not just 1 but 3 frosh soph league titles in track and field while being in band.

I chose to do the same this year, but instead I have 8 periods and I am also participating in an extracurricular performance team for taekwondo. I’m going to be on varsity this year and another person in the band have followed in my footsteps and is also attempting what I achieved last year.

“Masterpiece”

“Outlined in guilt, my portrait stares

In a gallery where the walls lie bare”

There is never a clear sign in life that tells you exactly what to do in life. If that were so life would be pointless. Instead you are given a gallery to fill with the art that you create by doing anything. But sometimes that inspiration is gone, and the only thing I could do is change.

“As I modernize my antique ways

True colors can’t escape the brush of fate”

If I were able to go back and tell my younger self that my life is so amazing and exciting, he would probably never believe it. I honestly didn’t think I would come such a long way. From being alienated by a group of athletic people as children to probably being more athletic now than they would ever be. It’s funny how much things can change. I used to not really like music too much, but now I’m in a band and I can’t go anywhere without music or thinking about music.

“On every canvas that I paint

Is a masterpiece made of my mistakes?

Illustrate all my pain

And set it all ablaze”

But, I can’t forget that I am shaped by my mistakes, not success. Without mistakes I would not have so much success. At the same time I should not dwell in the past, instead I should let that go and pursue my dreams and potentially make more mistakes as I go to fill my gallery and complete the masterpiece that is my life.