College Essay
Zachary Chock
Period 2
9/25/11
Topic
C. Explain how your experiences as a teenager significantly differ from those of your friends. Include comparisons.
During the beginning of Middle School and my development as a teenager, I was always trying to be different from those around me. It was my maturity that made me different. Learning from a certain event, I had decided to stop playing around and be serious to myself and others. Many teens of my age wanted to just live out their lives and do as much fun as they could. Looking at that, I wanted to be unique, different, and be able to stand out from others that I knew who acted in a way I found to be "disturbing and inappropriate". When I looked at my peers and how they acted out against each other, I contrasted them and I and told myself I wouldn't become anything like them. It was for that reason from there on in Intermediate school that many people thought I was weird, and shy, but I was the only one who thought it was okay and acceptable. For that, I felt stuck in my own little world.
While I was growing and maturing, I strayed away from the mainstream group. I was the odd one out, along with others who were like me and acted similar to how I would be. The “Mainstream” group, was more of a stereotypical prepubescent reckless and immature group, being what I would describe as “delinquents” as I grew in Middle School. The students would not listen to the teacher, despite age of approximately 12 – 14, still pass notes, try to text, but to no avail as the teacher would always select the most obvious texting students like a eagle plucking it’s prey. When noticed, others would ask me why I never talked too much, or participated in little “prank excursions” with everyone else, who followed and pulled stunts and destructive or distracting obstructions on others or uninformed people. It felt like bandwagon propaganda, in which everyone said, “Hop on! Be with us!” their temptations were strong, but seeing them get in trouble and make fools of themselves was enough to put me off.
With realization and self discovery, I lost pieces of my immaturity and strange behavior, and noticed that instead of the other students maturing and reaching levels of higher cognitive thinking with age, they simply grew more immature, setting examples of things I never wanted to become. The teacher and counselor noticed me as one of the very rarely seen students who obeyed almost everything asked of them, behaved better than most of the students, and did not get any referrals. I was labeled as a “goody two shoes” by my peers, and left out of their cliques, just confined to the library with the “others” that were silent, or did not have very social experiences and lives. I found it easy to make friends with those like me and it was okay, but we were all looked at as 'nerds, and bookie tweakers' by the teens who came into the library just to make fun of us, and who were just there to cause trouble instead of studying.
To everyone else, I was called the outcast, one of those who were ostracized from school, society, and kept out of the groups and social circles. I was always there to act like a policeman, governing and watching out for the kids who were teased, and others criticized my actions as I told on and reported on many people for marking walls or stealing equipment, and that was looked down upon as a bad thing. The students would take their anger out on me, and I was possibly one of the most hated middle school students at the time. My ‘officer’ behavior caught the attention of many, even adults, and they told me to calm down or to let them handle it. I disobeyed that, and as I kept telling, I kept making more enemies. Despite this, I chose not to become immature and act stupid, but stick to how I had always decided to be.
Eventually, I became more social, and began to shed my shell that kept me from being so shy and reclusive. I also found I was impaired by a high functioning form of Autism, called Aspergers, and it was because of that, I found it very difficult to be open and social, or make friends, and also caused me to use a lot of complicated words, which everyone found awkward. I tried hard by the 8th grade to be more like the students, albeit unlike them, not joining in their activities, just adopting their speech style and talk. The more I dropped the ‘turtle’ act and 'dropped the shell', the more easier it was to adapt to the student body and create friends out of enemies. They noticed my change, and they began to accept my viewpoint and diffrences, and treat me less harshly as they realized how immature they had acted and imposed upon others. Then, others began to act mature, and asked me for help, looking at their mistakes and regretting how they had treated others.
Then, I entered High School, which was definitely a whole new world for me. The students were more mature, had increased seriousness, and stopped acting like they were nine or ten. I found it easy to blend in, but the only difference was in clothing, talking, and thinking. I found "common" speech different and weird, whereas I would use "Attire", the others would use "Swag", or as I say "Beckon", they would say "Yo Neff!". Many of the other students found it weird that I do not dress in "Swagg" as I found it to be thuggish and ugly, where others found my "blank shirts and blank pants", clothing without designs qualified to be "Swagg", weird and untasteful. Others liked my persona of being nice and offering to help, which made me really good friends with Chad and others like him. Many of the students were like the others I faced in Elementary and Middle school, except more mature and able to handle situations or understand a person's viewpoint without making fun or leaving someone out. As the school year swept by in the freshman year, I got adjusted and absorbed a few points of the average high school student. In the beginning, I was silent as I had always been, but now, I had improved on speech and social skills, and stopped hanging by myself, and would hang out with a group of friends, just like others would do.
