Thoughts on New Kid

 Victoria Sabatino 


Thoughts on New Kid 


This reflection was almost too easy for me as I have also been a new kid and have gone through a culture shock. To be clear, I am not comparing the two stories as I was never a minority in the room and felt like the odd one out in that way, but being ‘new’ is not new to me. 

In 9th grade (an already incredibly awkward time) I moved across the country and it sucked- it sucks less now. Not only that, I had to go through the culture shock of living in a new place and being surrounded by different people. You would not think that catholic all-girl high schools feel that different, but trust me they do. 

Little things tallied up- different school lunches, the fact we had to be inside all day, snow days, uniforms- most of it was new and unknown. It is awkward being the odd one- people who were amazed that I had come from California. It was like I came from outer space. 

I found the girls in New Jersey to be a lot more sheltered and almost unwilling to break from that bubble. Even the girls that tried to never really could. Clearly, this is not their fault, it was just always kind of weird, especially when we talked about politics and stuff of that nature. 

Living in California exposed me to more ‘political’ issues, even more so considering it was the 2016 election the year I moved. I found myself to be more educated on some of the topics that had come up because I had lived through them. The most notable one is illegal immigration from Mexico. Being roughly 2 hours from the border exposed me to immigration from a very young age- heading North from San Diego we would drive through two customs stops. I also went to a high school in California that was 60% Hispanic and some of my friends had parents or loved ones who were not here legally. Having to explain and work through these troubles with other 16-year-olds on the other side of the country is not something I would personally like to do again.


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