Sitting alone at a table in the noisy school cafeteria was a lonely, miserable six year old girl ¬- me. While my classmates chattered about their plans for the weekend, I silently ate my pizza. I had no friends to talk to or make plans for the weekend with. I had just recently moved and was now attending a new elementary school. It was my third day of school and I was having a hard time adjusting. All of my teachers were kind and made me feel welcome. However, I missed my friends. I was not happy about moving to a new place and starting over. What made it worse was the fact that I felt like an outsider at my new school.
My first home was an apartment building in the neighborhood of Chinatown, in New York City. I went to an elementary school that consisted of …show more content…
The language mainly spoken was Chinese. I was just like everyone else. But when I was six my parents moved to a small town in Ohio. Moving from a big city with a diverse cultural population to a small, conservative, mostly white town had a huge effect on me. I took one look at my new classmates and knew that I stood out instantly because of my race. I was the only kid with immigrant parents at my new school. I was one of the few kids who were not Caucasian at my new school. The first few weeks of school were tough. I was very uncomfortable knowing that I was so different from my new classmates. Before we moved, I had never really thought of myself as being different in any way and being different here made me feel self-conscious. The kids at my new school made fun of the way I talked. They didn't know that I was not taught how to speak English until I was five. The food served in the school cafeteria was extremely different from the food served at my old school. Instead of rice and Chicken Chow Mei, there was pizza and cheeseburgers. I got a lot of curious stares when I pulled out my chopsticks and started eating with them.
My first home was an apartment building in the neighborhood of Chinatown, in New York City. I went to an elementary school that consisted of …show more content…
The language mainly spoken was Chinese. I was just like everyone else. But when I was six my parents moved to a small town in Ohio. Moving from a big city with a diverse cultural population to a small, conservative, mostly white town had a huge effect on me. I took one look at my new classmates and knew that I stood out instantly because of my race. I was the only kid with immigrant parents at my new school. I was one of the few kids who were not Caucasian at my new school. The first few weeks of school were tough. I was very uncomfortable knowing that I was so different from my new classmates. Before we moved, I had never really thought of myself as being different in any way and being different here made me feel self-conscious. The kids at my new school made fun of the way I talked. They didn't know that I was not taught how to speak English until I was five. The food served in the school cafeteria was extremely different from the food served at my old school. Instead of rice and Chicken Chow Mei, there was pizza and cheeseburgers. I got a lot of curious stares when I pulled out my chopsticks and started eating with them.