Amani Nassar Memoir 2 (Revised)

I felt like I had to start all over. It was the beginning of 9th grade and I was about to kick off my high school years at Medgar Evers College Preparatory. Unfortunately or what I later found out later to be a fortunate event, I had to attend a mandatory summer school at the very beginning of July to start preparation for classes like Physics and Geometry in order to take regents exams by the end of the year, basically starting high school a term earlier than most would. 

All throughout elementary school and even middle school I was fortunate enough to have the same group of friends. We did everything together from having the same classes to participating in all the school shows, and even hung out regularly outside of school. I was so used to having these people around me and now that we were going to different schools it was starting to set in that I was going to be alone and I felt completely lost.

On my way to my first day of summer school I remember having tears in my eyes as I entered the train. I was anxious and just knew high school would consist of 4 long, miserable years. Once I got into the building I made my way over to the office, got my schedule, and headed to my first class. I looked for the seat all the way in the back, furthest away from the rest of the class. More and more people started coming in and all I could hope was that no one would sit next to me. Then came the awkward introduction part of the first day. “State your name, favorite color, and an interesting fact about yourself.” I nervously told the class “hi, my name is Amani, my favorite color is purple,” and that’s about all I could remember. The rest is just a blank faded memory of that dreary day. 

Moving forward I stayed in that far back, lonely seat for about 2 weeks or so. I kept to myself most of the time, said “hi” and “bye” to some people here and there, never really answered any questions aloud, and kept my poor grades to myself. I was really struggling academically and being separated from what I was used to was not working out in my favor, but I did not want to make known to anyone in school. 

Every now and then we would have group work in which we were all forced to work together. Before I knew it more of my classmates were reaching my purposely isolated seat in the room. At first we talked strictly about class work and sat in silence for the remaining minutes of group work. After a while we started cracking jokes, asking each other questions about hobbies, family, and just life outside of school. Slowly but surely I was breaking out of my shy shell and was becoming more comfortable with meeting new people. 

Fast forward to September, I luckily saw one girl I had met in summer class and  thought to myself “this is my chance” as I approached her and asked what classes she had. We quickly learned we had almost the same exact schedule and the rest is history. Our few weeks of summer school turned into now almost 7 years of friendship along with the rest of our group of friends.