When I Was the Stranger in the Village
The Stranger in the Village: My Tale
McKenzie Cooper
9/19/2011
Period 2
Ms. Johnson
All through elementary school, I was left out. I never got along with other kids because I wasn’t pretty or bubbly as a little kid. Basically, my awkward phase was all the way to middle school. I can honestly say that I had one single friend at each elementary school I went to. When I went to Lockmar in Palm Bay, it was Jessica. We were the only two kids with lesbian parents, so we were close as could be.
When I was in the fourth grade, my mom had a nervous breakdown. Her significant other had left us, and she had gone through another brief relationship that didn’t end well. So, in the last month of my fourth grade school year, we moved to Ohio to live with my grandparents. When I started school in Ohio, there were only two weeks until summer vacation. I was in a new school in a new state and I didn’t know anyone in my class. I sat alone. I didn’t really talk to anyone. Sure, I had friends from my grandparents’ neighborhood that I’d know for a while, but they were in different grades or classes. I really only had Dani (short for Danielle). I have known her since I was four and she lived next door to my grandparents. She was a grade ahead of me, so I only saw her in the hallways of school. When I started fifth grade in the fall, I still didn’t really have friends. It’s a small town, so these kids had grown up as friends, so I was the outsider. Throughout the year I had people to sit with at lunch and to talk to during class, but I didn’t get invited to sleepovers and I didn’t really hang out with anyone other than Dani and her family. Towards the end of the school year, I finally started to make some friends. In the summer between fifth and sixth grade, we moved back to Florida and I started at a new elementary school in Melbourne. Back to square one. Whoop dee doo. It wasn’t really until middle school that I started making friends. But even then,
McKenzie Cooper
9/19/2011
Period 2
Ms. Johnson
All through elementary school, I was left out. I never got along with other kids because I wasn’t pretty or bubbly as a little kid. Basically, my awkward phase was all the way to middle school. I can honestly say that I had one single friend at each elementary school I went to. When I went to Lockmar in Palm Bay, it was Jessica. We were the only two kids with lesbian parents, so we were close as could be.
When I was in the fourth grade, my mom had a nervous breakdown. Her significant other had left us, and she had gone through another brief relationship that didn’t end well. So, in the last month of my fourth grade school year, we moved to Ohio to live with my grandparents. When I started school in Ohio, there were only two weeks until summer vacation. I was in a new school in a new state and I didn’t know anyone in my class. I sat alone. I didn’t really talk to anyone. Sure, I had friends from my grandparents’ neighborhood that I’d know for a while, but they were in different grades or classes. I really only had Dani (short for Danielle). I have known her since I was four and she lived next door to my grandparents. She was a grade ahead of me, so I only saw her in the hallways of school. When I started fifth grade in the fall, I still didn’t really have friends. It’s a small town, so these kids had grown up as friends, so I was the outsider. Throughout the year I had people to sit with at lunch and to talk to during class, but I didn’t get invited to sleepovers and I didn’t really hang out with anyone other than Dani and her family. Towards the end of the school year, I finally started to make some friends. In the summer between fifth and sixth grade, we moved back to Florida and I started at a new elementary school in Melbourne. Back to square one. Whoop dee doo. It wasn’t really until middle school that I started making friends. But even then,