As a small eighth grader, I still remember the excitement I felt about starting a new school. It was my first time studying in America and coming from another country where America is depicted as the best country in the world I was really excited. However, everything changed as soon as I got to my classroom.
“This is Claudia, she is the new student that moved from Peru.” I looked around at the group of teenagers waving my hand slowly. Suddenly I heard it, the one sentence that shattered my world “So now we have an immigrant in school”. As soon as I heard it a shiver ran down my spine. My world stopped completely. I realized it was true, I was an immigrant.
I was mortified. I had never heard that word before and suddenly it became my new nickname, “the immigrant”. I wanted to fit in. I did not want to be the person that never had a partner for projects. I did not want to be the person who never got chosen in gym class. I wanted people to choose me. Ergo, I followed the “popular” crowd around. I would act out in class; would not listen to the teachers. I became someone I never thought I would be. I became one of them and all because of one petty word. Amazing is it not? One word can change who you are …show more content…
I had never been suspended in my life before. I was a good girl; I was the girl her siblings looked up to, I was the girl her mom would always be proud of. I asked myself, what was I doing? I was ruining my life and my future. Why? Because I wanted to fit in, because I wanted that awful nickname obliterated forever. But as I looked at my mom’s disappointed face as soon as she got out of the principal’s office I knew, I knew I had to stop being sophomoric. I could not be the immature girl everyone speculated I was. I needed to be a role model for my siblings and most importantly for