Nelson Ngov

It was the start of the new school year, and everyone else seemed so different then the year they were before. I entered the unfamiliar hallways of my next four years searching for a familiar face or someone who I can talk to. This was the first day of high school, the most important years of everyone’s life, so I made sure to try to fit in and not act like a freshman. It was going well until someone much bigger bumped into me and made me drop everything I was holding. He seemed standoffish for a brief few seconds, but quickly whispered out a shy “sorry” and helped me pick up all my stuff.

That’s when I noticed him for the first time and how different he was and out of place he looked. He was a tall stocky guy with dark brown squinted eyes, and even darker jet black hair. This was when I noticed that he was the new Asian transfer student from another country. After making sure I was okay and apologizing a hundred times, he asked me where the ESL room was. “The what” I heard myself say, I never knew this school had an ESL classroom. He seemed pretty lost and I had some time to kill so I offered my help because he seemed like an alright guy.

It took a while to find, but after going around a circle two times and going into the wrong room we finally arrived. I didn’t think much of it that morning until we sat next to each other later in biology class. The teacher decided to do those awkward ice breakers like they always to do on the first day. When it got to the foreign student’s turn he said how he moved far from home because his dad got a job offer here. Everyone else seemed disinterested, but this actually stuck with me because I remember how It felt to be unsure of where I was and didn’t know anyone. 

I decided at this moment to get to know him better because he seemed like an interesting guy. It took over a month for us to become better friends, but I learned so much about where he was from and we grew closer over the years in high school.