It was the first day of 6th grade, my palms were sweaty and my knees were weak. My heart was racing with nerves and my body was only surviving on few hours of sleep from the night before because of nerves. The thought of walking into to a new school with new people, and a new beginning was so scary. All that I have ever known is my elementary school, which were the best years of my life. As I opened the heavy doors to middle school, my feet felt like they wouldn’t move in any direction and the door was so big I couldn’t handle to open it. I could tell that this school was going to be a new beginning of something I wasn’t going to like. I walked into the long hallways that felt many miles long with my best friend, Cate, right by my side. As Cate and my hands intertwined, we were ready to take on the year together as best friends… Or at least I thought we were.

As the weeks progressed, I saw Cate start to mix with a crowd of girls that I knew wasn’t a good group. They were considered the popular group at the time and everyone wanted to be like them or be friends with them. Their long hair sparkled and they always had the most glamorous powdered faces. The way that they walked with the hip swinging strides, clearly showed that they were the “it” girls. Not only were they popular, but they were mean, they made wrong choices, and clearly didn’t care if others approved. Everyone just wanted their approval.

Everyone sow them for the bad attitude they had and for the indescribable choices that they made. I knew that these were not good girls to be around, but unfortunately, Cate thought otherwise. She wanted to be just like them and told me about how much she wanted to be friends with them. She wanted to show everybody that she was just like them and that is just what she did. She started to dress like them and do everything that they would do.  I, of course, just wanted to stay friends with her because I didn’t know any differently because she was my only friend that I could trust and that I ever did anything with. I didn’t want to see my best friend become lost in the crowd of the seemingly evil cool girls.

As time went on so did the friendships. My friendship started to fall with Cate and hers started to climb with the “it” girls. I knew that in order for me to make it through this year I had to find another group of friends, ones with more of the same likings. I started to become close with a group of girls that were nice, pretty, and most of all welcoming. They had smiles that showed their pearly white teeth and just allowed for you to feel welcomed. What I liked is that they didn’t all look the same and they didn’t feel that they need to compete with each other or with others. Some had short brown, some had long blond but all were very pretty.   They welcomed me like I was one of the missing pieces to the puzzle. I was brought into the friendship with open arms and friendly smiles. As the school year progressed so did I, with my friendships. I was so happy that I found these girls who truly knew me and wanted to be friends with me for who I was and not for who I was supposed to be.

In the end I realized that I don’t have to follow what other people do. I need to be my own person with my own path to walk on. I need to listen to my mom and dad and also what my gut is telling me because those 3 things are always right. I learned that you don’t need to be friends with a group of girls just because they are popular, you need to be friends with people because you enjoy them and who they are.