High School.You either had a good time, or you absolutely hated it. To me, the desire to fit in and feel a belonging was paramount as a freshman joining a sea of new faces and cliques, not to mention the unfamiliar territory I would be spending the next four years. Intimidation and fear were a couple of the emotions I experienced at first. But after some coarse tuning and a little faith, I was a typical "high school kid."I recognized early the need to have friends. And to me, the more friends I could get the better. I didn't care what ethnicity, social status, or cli ...view middle of the document...
It was also a great way to meet girls, which was of course the motivation to get up and go to school each day.As I got through my sophomore year, I realized I wanted to do more. Since singing in choir wasn't the "coolest" thing to do, I decided to try out for the schools baseball team. I was a decent ball player, and after the first couple of practices I gained the respect of my fellow teammates and was considered part of the team. The friendships I would make playing baseball would last a lifetime. As I look back, it was at that point I had achieved belonging in my mind. I felt accepted by my peers, and most importantly a boost of self-confidence and the realization that I was "one of them."In no way was I a "popular" high school kid. If anything I was an extremely average character who did okay scholastically, could hold a note, and could hit a baseball. I was scared, and I struggled to make connections at first like most high school students. Overall I believe I employed motivation to participate, and to have my hands in as many buckets as possible with the ultimate goal to earn friendship and acceptance from anybody willing to notice. And in the end I feel that I adopted the nice guy, baseball playing choirboy identity. If there is such a thing.
