What I Did

It was the first day of school. The first day of a new life for me. My name is Anita , and today I am going into 10th grade. A few weeks ago my  mother lost her job, and my dads work was closing out. We had already been struggling enough, but when this happened it was the final straw. We couldn’t afford to live in our house anymore, and we didn’t have enough money for food. We were going to move. My whole life I’ve been here in this city , I had friends, I had school, and I had a community. Now we are moving to some small town a few hours away from here, where I will have none of this. Or so I thought.

I have to get up super early in the morning, earlier than ever. My parents had already packed up their bags, and I had gotten all my things together. We have loaded our things in our little cart. I had already said goodbye to my friends. I mean I didn’t have a lot of friends, but I did have three best friends. I have known him since grade 2. They were also my neighbors. We had so many great memories together, I grew up with these people, we have never gotten in a fight. Right as I was about to get into the car I saw them running down the street I ran towards him and they gave me a hug leaving all this behind was so hard. But I know I had to be strong. I had to be the leader for my siblings and show my parents said it’s OK. I have a little brother, who is in grade 7. He didn’t have very many friends,  so this wasn’t as hard for him. I didn’t think he understood what he was leaving behind. He took for granted all the things that he had. I also have two younger sisters who are both in grade 5. Ava has Tourette’s syndrome. Which adds up the bills. I work a job down the street babysitting for some of the neighbors. To help with the cost. This is all happening so fast I was so scared for what my new life would be. Looking at all of us we said goodbye to our community and everybody. We squished on the car I buckled up my siblings and I looked out the window as we drove away. Single tear went down my face. I have grown up here I don’t know nothing else.

In the car I have to deal with my siblings fighting over space in the car. I sat silently. The car ride was about six hours. Six hours away from my life. No one knew what I was going through, I had to go to a new school, I had to make new friends. This would be so hard. But eventually I fell asleep. I dreamt about my life, and what it would be like now.

I woke up really hot. I looked out the window and I saw a bunch of little buildings in a lot of land. I pray that this is not the town that I am going to live in. But that’s when my mother says “we’re here” . My heart sank. I wanted to live in a big city, and have more opportunities to make friends. People ask me why do I care so much about having friends, and I don’t know how to answer this. People don’t understand why I need them. They support me, they make me feel good, and I like the feeling knowing that I have someone there. Being the oldest in my family makes it seem like I have nobody. I don’t have an older sister to talk to, I don’t have an older brother to speak to.

We parked her car in the middle of the street. I got out so hot. I was already starting to sweat. I picked up my siblings and put them out of the car, and I looked around. I saw lots of people walking outside in the beautiful dresses. I never had beautiful dresses to wear. Every Christmas I would always ask for a new dress. Some Christmases I would get it but not all of them. My parents called us to go and search around the town a little bit, well they go and get us some water. Of course I was the one who had to wrangle all of us together. Walking down cobblestone Road, And the wood board sides against all the buildings. I didn’t have a phone, but my parents did. So I told them to sit on a bench while I go grab my parents phone, I wanted to call my friends. Till I realized there was no service. This was the absolute worst thing. Hot weather, no friends,  A bunch of moving kids. I put down the phone in the centre consul and ran back to everyone. My parents were already there with some water. They were all chugging it down. I thought they were going to choke. We all started walking back to the car and reloaded ourselves in. We started Driving away. I have to learn how to drive in this town too so I was trying to look out the windows. Memorizing streets names and the way to the house. Our new house wasn’t too far away from the main part of town.  There were lots of houses around it. Which meant lots of people to meet. 

We pulled up to the house, it was all made out of bricks and wood. It was a two-story house that had four bedrooms. My parents handed me the keys and I walked up the stairs. They were creaking with every step. I slowly open the door and saw some beautiful furniture. The stairs were right in front of me so of course I ran up the stairs trying to find a room I want. Following me my parents and my siblings. We got up and there were four doors. All made out of wood but looked like metal. We all open the doors to find three small bedrooms, and one big bedroom. My parents were the ones who got the big bedroom. I got the room that was a decent size that had a window seating. My brother went in the room next-door and my two sisters went across the hall. My sisters would have to share the room together. We went back outside and started bringing in our stuff, we didn’t have a lot but we did have a pretty decent amount. We spent the next few hours unloading things and people came over gradually and saying hello and bringing us snacks. I didn’t really get to meet any younger kids. But I would start school tomorrow. In this town The money was different. Milk was only one dollar, in my home city milk would be six dollars. No wonder we moved here. The house is already finished so we didn’t have to buy any furniture, which was nice. My parents left straight away to go and sign into the new jobs. Just to let them know that they were there. My brother was old enough to stay home alone with the sisters so I left them to go and see my school. People were already there checking in and finding their lockers. The school was about a 10 minute walk. A 10 minute walk in the most hot weather ever. The kids that I saw didn’t look very including but I didn’t lose hope. Layer I walked home and hopped into my bed. Wondering for what the next day will bring.

I got up earlier than everyone. Getting breakfast ready and cleaning up some stuff. I’ve gotten all my school stuff ready for today and I put on my best pair of sneakers and jeans and a T-shirt. My mom said she would take us shopping here because the money was different, I was so excited for this! But she said she would do that after school one day. Eventually over time everyone started waking up and we all got ready for school. Mom drove us up to elementary school first, then she dropped dad off at his new job, and then she drop me off. I got out and the weather was even hotter than yesterday. Kids were looking at me funny, but I didn’t let it bother me. I got out and started heading to my first class, homeroom. Walking through a nicely polished floors looked around for friends. Everyone just looked mean. I tried to not let this get to me. Where I was from everybody liked each other, and there was no one that was mean to each other. I got to homeroom and I saw one empty seat in the back of the classroom. There were a few other girls sitting around there that looked  nice. Everyone was standing up and talking to each other except for those girls sitting down I went up to them and ask them  about how the weather was, and what was their name, but it was still pretty awkward. They did seem kind of nice though when they were talking to me. So I invited them over after school, to get ice cream. They agreed. Maybe this town wasn’t so bad after all.

After school we are headed off to the ice cream store and ate are ice cream as it started to slowly melt. I got to know them pretty well, they were really nice. I wish everyone at the school so nice like this. We talked for two hours, and then we all laughed. I went home to find a potluck going on inside my house. Neighbours had brought Food and we’re very welcoming, there is also a few kids there. I gathered up all the kids and we chatted for a bit they were pretty nice. This is the kind of community I wanted.

The next day at school I got up and went to the washroom. As I was washing my hands a girl came coming in I couldn’t see who she was. But she was crying. I asked her how was she, she didn’t respond, until she turned around I realized that it was one of my friends. One of my friends that had ice cream yesterday with. It looked Like someone had just messed with her and ripped all of her stuff into pieces. She opened up her backpack and everything was torn. She fell on the ground and started crying I picked her up and I hugged her. Just as I was thinking everyone was so nice here, this happens. This is why I didn’t want to come here!

After school me and my new friends all sat together outside of the school and talk together these girls were really nice. We were all a little shook as to what happened. We try to get her to talk about it she didn’t want to talk. I didn’t know what to say I never had friendship drama. But eventually she spilled it out. She said that these people came up to her harassing her about her culture. She was  Black. I didn’t understand what she was saying at first. I thought everyone was equal here, and at my old school we did have racial talks. But I’ve never seen it in person. Why was this town so messed up. We all support each other and we sat in a circle together. I don’t understand, I think everyone’s cultures are equal. They bring different things to the table. I think of it it’s like this. If you’re having a potluck not everyone’s gonna bring the same type of chips you’re going to get people bringing different types of chips. And that’s OK, not everyone’s just gonna want one kind of chips.

After school we all walk to Eves House. We decided we were going to have a sleepover. So we enjoyed our night we talked a lot. We decided that something needed to change. People can’t just do this and get away with it. So I suggested the idea of coming up with a way to make sure everyone feels included. I suggested that we get the schools involved and we talk about cultural, and how everyone is equal. They all agreed. We decided to make up a speech for tomorrow at school for what we would say. Most of the time staff members are totally clueless of things going on. But this needed to change. I could not sit there and watch one of my friends get bullied every single day like this.

The next day we all got up and we walk to school together prepared for what we would say. Went straight to the principals office and they asked to speak with the principal. They lead us to the principal and we sat down and we talked about this. They had no idea this was going on. It’s so crazy to know that some people are just clueless about this. We suggested change and she agreed. She decided to get to school together for a talk. This is kind of last-minute but I was glad to see that change is happening. No one should ever have to go through that. And I was not going to just sit there and let it happen. She asked us if we would like to speak at it  and of course we all said yes. I was so nervous to speak in front of the school I’ve never really seen before. But I knew that change needed to happen I couldn’t just let it slip by like everything else. We got up on stage all nervous. We told our speech loudly and proudly. We got through it and everyone said thank you to us. It felt so good to do something. But what I didn’t know that someone was live streaming our whole speech.

 Later as we were all walking to my house we had gotten a notification on my friends phone. She had data. Our video has gone viral. Hundreds and hundreds of people were seeing this it was growing by the minute. People were sharing it. We are so happy to see that people were actually paying attention to this. It is so interesting to see how little things can change so much. I came to this town with no friends, and now I come out of it actually liking it, and meeting an amazing group of friends.

In the next couple of months people start respecting each other more in our school and the community was getting closer I can’t believe from our speech that we made a difference I was so happy.