New Faces, New Places, New Me

I grew up with the same people all through elementary school and middle school. At the end of eighth grade, my parents decided they wanted to move. Unfortunately, they had their hearts set on somewhere outside of our school district, which meant I would be starting high school, which was a big deal in my life at the time, with totally new people.
Of course I was upset, but being an emotional teenager, I became very dramatic that summer. My parents did all they could to comfort me, but I didn't want to have to make new friends; I had plenty of good ones already, so I thought. So as my parents dragged me for my first day of high school, a rush of unfamiliarity struck through my body and I searched for a friendly face.
I felt so out of place and it seemed I was being looked as if I were an alien. Everyone knew each other, or at least everyone had someone to talk to. I found my homeroom fifteen minutes before class was supposed to start and I just sat there, wishing I knew someone or that someone would start a conversation with me. As people began to file in the room, I searched for eyes glancing my way, maybe to hint my desperation. Still, no one.
When lunch time came, I dreaded the upper commons area where I would have to find a place to sit. The tables were filling up and I was certain no one would just let some stranger sit down at their table. I saw a girl from my geometry class, so I asked if I could sit down, but she declined. My heart started to beat really fast as the rejection seeped in and depleated any confidence I had. I ended up eating outside, which was against the rules, so halfway through my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the security guards made me go inside. I went back to my third block class for the remainder of the lunch period.
This new school was so big, that the amount of students intimidated me on that first day. They all knew each other, so my attendance wasn't important to them. I decided that isolating myself was getting me nowhere so finally, on the second day I decided to step out of the box and talk to someone. I ended up meeting tons of people that day, and was even invited to sit at a lunch table. One of the advantages to making new friends, was that they had no idea who I was in middle school or before that. So I could become a new person with no flaws or history to everyone I met. It felt good to be a "new Amber" because there was no way to be judged. Once I started to meet people I didn't feel apart from the group anymore. I began to learn the latest gossip and found that this school was alot like the one I used to attend. There were similar people who reminded me of my friends back home which was evidence that even though we grow up in different places with different people, we share similar interests with similar goals. Our culture is so interesting because as different as people are, what we experience and feel seem to coincide which tie us all together. I appreciate the experience I had as a newcomer starting high school because I learned who I was, as well as how to become more of an extrovert and put myself out there.