New Friend Group
Do you ever not understand something, but you don’t want to speak up about it because you don’t want to look dumb in front of the people who are discussing it? Well, I had issues like that and still do to this day, but obviously, it is now less worst than it usto be! Let me tell you one of the memories I had concerning that problem. When I was in 7th grade, I would have a lot of my friends ask me why I would hang out with the 8th graders and not the friend I had in my own grade. The truth is I went with the 8th graders because they helped me understand that not everyone can understand everything and that doesn’t mean you can’t fit in. I wasn’t in their grade and I didn’t quite know what they would talk about most of the time when they would argue, but they still accepted me in their friend group and took their time to fit me in with them even though I didn’t know what they were on about.
When I would hang out with my friends in my grade I felt uncomfortable because most of them would talk about boys and clothing, things that I didn’t quite like to talk about, and things that I quite didn’t understand why anyone would want to talk about.
There was one time where I remember very vividly that we sat at the bleachers, and they just began to have conversations about what their favorite tiktokers were and which tiktoker they found more appealing. At the time I didn’t have TikTok because I found it boring to me but realizing that it was all they talked about and it got me frustrated. None of my friends even bothered to interact with me when they would talk about these topics, they would just have me linger around with them and this made me feel lonely and out of place.
I sooner began to realize that maby a change of friend groups, that didn’t make me feel like I needed to know everything they talked about in order to be friends, had to change. I saw that there was a group of people from across the foursquare who were just hanging around, not doing much but enjoying each other’s company. I approached them one day and just sat at their table in a very casual manner. Eventually, they began to warm up to me and allow me to sit with them even if they were a grade above me, we would often discuss literally anything. I sat with them all through the year and I still remember how we would discuss about the Canadian dollar bill smelling like maple syrup if u scratch on it or we would just discuss our worst past experiences at Toys R Us.
This table was very nice to me and I remember one of the girls by the name of Jessica once told me “it’s ok not to know everything we are talking about, you are still our friend either way.” and those words made me feel the comfort and acceptance that I had been longing for. I got to become friends with my neighbor Syndey and Jaelyn who lived in the same district as me. I had also met a new kid that came into the 8th grade, a boy by the name of Mackay who surprisingly lives in the same neighborhood as I do in Spain. I was also very kind to invite my now presently best friend Elizabeth to the 8th-grade table, as she told me she had been going through a similar problem to mine and she didn’t feel comfortable with the kids in our grade. I invited her with us to meet new people and sooner or later we got along so well that we were inseparable. I also became friends with a boy named Alejandro who took a very passionate interest in science and he would always come to the table with perfectly squared cut fruit that I would always comment on.
Making all these new friendships and having them warm up to me every time we would talk, made me feel very comfortable and accepted among a group of people that I would have never thought to get along with. Its real heart warms me to know that you don’t need to know everything that’s happening or occurring in present media in order to be a part of a group, instead what they gave me was acceptance and maturity to take a bit of their time to hear me out and involve me in their conversations.