Junior high was one of my least favorite chapters of my life thus far. It was full of hormonally overactive pre-teens who liked to act bigger than they were. Everyone belong to some click, usually along racial lines, but it wasn’t some hostile environment. Everyone still interacted and was friendly with each other, it was merely a way for them to congregate based on whom they knew form classes and whom they lived near. Then there was me, the kid from who didn’t live near anyone and didn’t know anyone else in school because of that. I didn’t really being to any click and mainly wandered between groups, getting to know more people and developing better relationships with them. Not really fitting into a specific group led to being made fun of occasionally, but it was light. I mainly ignored people who went out of their way to insult me in juvenile and unsophisticated ways since they were usually the narrow minded people whom I often disagreed with and too pompous for their own good. There were many of these people, however, so I didn’t really make friends with many people and nor did I want to. It wasn’t until 8th grade that I met someone who would change my life.
Her name was Venice and she opened my eyes to better fill my open mind. She wasn’t like most of there other kids and also thought that most of them were too full of themselves for their own good. We weren’t that friendly towards each other until the end of junior high – the summer before high school. I’m still not sure of the reasons why even when looking at this in retrospect, but that summer, I spent almost everyday out and about when I had previously done other, “more productive” things with my summer and rarely went out to just enjoy myself. Everyday was an adventure with Venice. We went all over midtown so much so that by the end of July, I knew every avenue and where all the fun venues were. She broadened my view of the world though the experiences we had. With all Manhattan had to offer, I experienced different cultures, especially the food, visited museums that enriched my knowledge of history and art, and also, inadvertently, exposed me to the world of business.
Being in midtown so often and around lunch hour, I saw the culture of the business world and took a deep interest in it. I soon wanted to learn more about the business world and what it was like. It didn’t seem as boring as people painted it to be. In fact, it seemed very civilized and relaxed with polite individuals who were knowledgeable and quick in thinking. On the rare occasion when we got lost, we would ask one of them for directions and they would kindly give it to us, detailed and accurate. It was then that I decided to pursue a career in business but with no particular field in mind. I still had 4 years plus ahead of me to figure that out.
Well, that was the summer come and gone of ‘06. Soon, high school started and we were off to different schools. She went off to Bronx High School of Science and I to Stuyvesant High School. We still met and hung out throughout high school but not to the extent we did that summer. Still, the impact she made on my life was lasting. I became more accepting of new people after having such a good run with her and also became more apt to exploring and trying new things. I had also become more accepting and less judgmental. I think people saw me as interesting, or more interesting that I would have been if I hadn’t met Venice since I knew of many good places to hang out and have fun that most of the new people I met in Stuy didn’t know of. I owe a lot to Venice for shaping a great part of me into what I am today.
High school ended a few months ago and Venice and I are still in contact often, but also still on different tracks. She’s up in Buffalo while I’m still in the city pursuing my career in business, and she’s undecided. She tried to convince me back in December of last year to follow her up to Buffalo and attend The University of Buffalo in the SUNY system, but I decided to stay in the city where I had hoped that being in the center of the business world would better prepare me for it later in my career. I hope to learn more and be enriched more by attending college here than if I had attended college elsewhere, farther from the city. I hope that I will get the classes I desire next semester and hope that this semester of preselected courses ends quickly. I hope that in time, I can say that turning down other schools in Boston and elsewhere was the best choice I couldn’t made in regards to my college career.
