Every time I drive home and I pass by my old Middle School it always makes me reflect on what I can now admit was one of the loneliest times of my life. Middle school was where I had lost all of my friends growing up, including one who I thought was my best friend, and it took me until high school to finally come out of my shell. But during my years in Middle School I was too shy and timid to ever talk to anybody and usually spent time by myself.

I specifically remember my first day of eighth grade. New year, new teachers, new kids. I remember walking into my homeroom that morning and waiting for the morning announcements to start and for the day to begin. I didn’t talk to anyone, except to say hi to the teacher. I remember when I gave the teacher my last name and she answered “Billy, right?” I was very confused at first and when I corrected her she was like “Oh okay, sorry, you and this Billy kid aren’t related right?” I told her no and then went to my seat. I kept noticing the seat in front of me was still empty and since the seats were in alphabetical order, I quickly figured out that this Billy Garcia was due to sit in front of me. I was curious at first to what this kid would be like but then went back to memorizing my schedule and waiting for the day to start.

I remember hearing the bell ring and my teacher about to shut the door when this kid came running through apologizing for his tardiness. I remember looking at this kid and just thinking to myself, “typical new kid”. He was dressed in clothes that clearly looked like his mother had picked them out and he was very polite and had this smile on his face. I remember thinking to myself give it time, that smile will go away pretty quickly. He then gave his name, Billy Garcia, and as soon as I heard the name I thought to myself, “she thought I was related to him?” He sat down in front of me and quickly introduced himself.

I was shocked that this kid was actually speaking to me but then I thought well he’s new and doesn’t know anybody so I guess I can help him out a little. Back then I tended to be very awkward when it came to meeting new people and a lot of the time I would not say much and just let them do all the talking. The conversation was very awkward for me and I wanted it to end soon and then thankfully the bell rang and it was time to go to my first class, French. I remember getting up to leave and I told Billy it was nice to meet him and good luck with finding everything. He then asked me what class I had and I told him French and then he started following me because faith have it he was in the same class. So we walked to French class together and then he sat down next to me for class and at first I got a little defensive. I thought to myself I wonder if this kid thinks we’re friends now or something?

Back then I had a very negative mindset to dealing with people and I was not good at making friends because I was always so defensive; I remember making excuses not to hang out with someone. Like if they asked for my number; I would be like “oh I don’t know my number, sorry”. And then I remember the teacher passed out emergency contact sheets, basically a name of a fellow classmate you would put down and call in case you forgot your homework or something. And then Billy turned to me and asked me for my number, at first I was very resistant but finally gave in and gave him my number with the thought in the back of my mind, he probably won’t ever call. Then the bell rang and class was over and it was on to my next class. Billy asked me before I left what class I had and when I told him I was slightly relieved when he told me he had a different class and we went our separate ways after that.

Then came lunch time which was a part of school I did not enjoy as much as a typical kid would. The first day of school lunch is always the worst because you’re just trying to find a place to sit and eat. And for a kid who didn’t talk to that many people it was much harder to find a table to sit at, especially when my grade consisted of nothing but cliques. I remember getting my lunch and then just looking around for a place to sit. At one point I spotted a kid I knew since middle school, Ben.

He and I got along pretty well and I thought maybe I could sit at his table, even if it was just for one day. I remember saying hi to him and then going to set my tray down when all of a sudden this other kid at the table moved his stuff over where I planned to lay my tray and then just looked at me and said, “No”. I remember how much that crushed me, the idea of someone just shooing you away like an stray dog just looking for food. What made it worse was that it was something I had always feared happening to me one day and to see it actually happen just took the remaining self esteem I had and finished it off for good. I took my tray and walked away and soon started to see all of the table begin to fill up when I heard a familiar voice behind me, “hey Christian you want to sit over here?”

I looked behind me and saw Billy sitting by himself at a table. I remember thinking to myself, “It’s a place to sit!! Take it!!” So I sat down with Billy and we got to talking about how the rest of our day was going. At the time I still had the mindset, I’m ashamed to say, where I cared about what other people thought. I did or did not do certain things because other people wouldn’t think it was “cool”. I would lie about the things I liked and what I disliked just to fit in with a bunch of people that now that I look back I would never want to associate myself with. But back then I did, and I remember thinking well eating lunch with the new kid, could be worse. To this day I am still ashamed that I thought that way. Especially about someone as kind-hearted and nice as Billy.

But life works in mysterious ways, because even though at one point I even tried to ignore him and even sat by myself for lunch once, he still talked to me every day in homeroom and every day in French. And then he even called me a couple of times to help him with the homework. Ironically I even helped him with math homework and he actually did better than me in that class. But soon we started to realize we had a lot in common and actually started becoming friends.

At one point, though, we still sat at separate tables for lunch. I sat with these two kids Vlad and Victor who were nice enough to invite me to sit with them and Billy sat with a group of people that included John, who would go on to become one of my best friends along with Billy. But by the end of eighth grade, we all ended up sitting together and we all became friends, specifically me, Billy and John, throughout high school. But if you were to ask me back then that the new kid in my homeroom would go on to become one of the best friends I ever had and still to this day, I would not have believed you. You never know where life will take you and who will be brought in and out of your life but that’s just the way it works and I could not be more thankful for that.

But I will always remember how that first day of eighth grade would begin, what I didn’t know at the time, to be the steps towards coming out of my shell more and becoming the person I am today. Middle school was not the easiest of times for me and it was one of the lowest points in my life socially. I always remember that first day of eighth grade to this day as the beginning of my life turning around for the better.