My Educational Narrative
High School can be one challenging ride in a teenagers life. The bullying, the gossiping, first boyfriend/girlfriend. It was all just too new for me. At the beginning i though high school would have been fun but it turned out to be a nightmare. Many students are judged before they even know it. Like in my case, I attended Franklin K. Lane High School which was known to be one of the toughest high schools at the time. My first day as a Freshman in high school i was already categorized as an Indian. But little did they know that I am a Guyanese American.
My religion is Hinduism and my parents are from Guyana which is part of the Caribbean. In high school there were a group of teenagers that only hang out with their own races. For example, African Americans and Hispanics. During my freshman year i was teased a lot and called “The Indian” pretty much every day. Most days i didn’t even want to go to school just so i wouldn’t have to deal with it. But why should i have to be the one to hide? I asked myself. One day i decided to go to school and sit wherever i felt like sitting in the lunchroom. An African American girl approached me from behind and grabbed my hair and pulled me off the seat. She called me an Arab and cursed at me. I cried because in my mind i didn’t know what i had done wrong. This girl didn’t even know my race and she didn’t even know my religion.
After lunch i went to my English class and i was still crying a little. Mr. Pearlman was my favorite English teacher in high school, he is the reason i love English so much. Mr. Pearlman saw me crying and asked what had happened so i told him and he sat down with me and talked to me about bullying. He taught me how to overcome bullying by standing up for myself. Instead of fighting back he told me to write down how much anger i felt and read it back to myself, and somehow i felt better knowing that i am strong enough to write rather than fight back.
My first college before i transferred to LaGuardia Community College was Queensborough Community College. In my first year there i became as Auxiliary Police Officer of the 106th Pct and i also joined the Caribbean Club and made many friends with all races. I found that most college students are proud of representing where they came from. Nobody there judged my nationality or my religion. My advice to teenagers growing up today is that if you are being bullied tell someone so you can get the help and advice you need rather than fighting back. Because of Mr. Pearlman helping me learn how to handle bullying i can walk with my head held high knowing that i never needed violence to make myself strong, all i needed was to write.