My Westchester Family has different roots. My four best friends are the people that have known me my entire life. Although we spent four years in different schools my relationships with them remain the same and have grown throughout the time. They have witnessed my awkward stage and know my parents. They are a part of my real family, who happened to be affected by my commuting life. My parents were devoted to me and made my experience as easy as they could. The countless drives to and from New York City at late hours in the night or early Sunday mornings to pick me up from my friend's apartments display their efforts to make it natural for me. My friends though, have seen whom I have grown into. They have been there for the "ups" and the "downs" of my childhood and hold a lot of history in my life.
I cannot say that I am the same person I was when I left them to switch schools. I have changed maturity wise, as did everyone by default of growing up and experiencing high school, but I also changed by becoming more comfortable with myself and grew into my personality. |
My school was one that motivated students to reach their best potential, to find things they enjoyed and peruse them in any way they could and most importantly, over all of their other goals, tried to leave a mark in every student. They want to set in stone values and ideas into the heads of the students. My horizons were widened and my eyes were now open to many different ideas. I had teachers pushing for me to do the best I could academically but also who wanted to engrave in me confidence.
Once one of my teachers met with me after class, sat me down and told me I need to learn how to stick up for myself better. He said he knows I have a lot of friends and all of who have my back but realized I needed to be firmer. The fact that my teacher said this was crazy to me. The care he had to go out of his way to not only notice something so small but to take action about it and act as my friend or mentor was so shocking to me. It was moments like those that made me into a little bit of a different person, and my Westchester "family" witnessed the change. They were my outside view of everything. Their opinions on all things always kept me grounded. I changed but having them I would never change too much because of their irreplaceable relationship and down-to-earth mindsets that I value so much. |