It hurts...to feel excluded...IN MY COUNTRY: I'm in kindergarten. I have lots of friends. I feel free. I feel happy. All I care is to have fun!
I'm in Junior High now. I have many friends. I like boys and I have fun shearing with other people.
USA: It's my first day of class in high school. I feel excluded. I have no friends...People see me, but they don't see me at the same time. I feel really out of place. In my country I never felt this way! It hurts...
It's my first week of college. I have to give a presentation in my speech class. Everybody seems to be interested in my topic but everything changes the minute they see me up there and they hear my accent. Everybody loses interest...
In the present time nothing has changed. No one really imagines how I feel about anything. I have so many things to say, so many things to offer and no body seems to care...
People don't like to see beyond the color my skin or my accent. I wish I could tell them about the fears I have to live everyday when I ride the bus to school, when I go to the store or even when I'm in class. When I'm in class nobody wants to work with me. I wish I could let everybody know how that feels. How I feel when I look in their faces and I see the reaction of rejection. I wish I could tell everybody that they are not the only ones who make me feel bad, it's also the threats I suffer EVERYDAY out there in my everyday world from people who don't like certain minorities like my race. It doesn't feel good! It is sad and frustrating at the same time!
I am a human being like everybody else!
I feel, I care, I love...
I don't like to be invisible, ignored or excluded...
I want to have credibility and the respect I deserve...
I hope my children would not ever feel the pressure I feel...the pain I feel...
I hope my children would have a different life.
A life full of love and liberty in all aspects of their lives.
As usual, Magdalena, you've been brave in your choice of a topic. I love that! Moving when you did must have been so hard -- most teenagers are terrified of (and harsh about)any kind of difference. High school and college are really, really lonely for a lot of people, and I think that working with others in class -- people who are almost always strangers -- creates some self-doubt and fear of rejection in most of us. I don't mean to discount the threat you feel as a member of a minority. I just want to reassure you that you aren't alone in your feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and frustration. The fact that almost all of us feel or have felt like outsiders helps us relate to what you've written.
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