Mixed Girl Problems: We're Moving Down South
While I have lived in a few places around the world thus far, moving to South Carolina was the biggest culture shock I have had in my life.
Please remember, these are my experiences that I would not forget due to how they made me feel. To remember my attendance at school in South Carolina in my adolescent years, it was a time that impacted me a lot because of the great differences I noticed in the education system.
In fact, it was my first time time entering a school with metal detectors and police officers at the doors, students required to wear identification cards on lanyards, and a few pregnant teens roaming the school.
I was in shock to see that at the age of 13 there were some girls already pregnant... Weren't we still saying that boys had cooties?
As I navigated my first week at school in South Carolina, I made a new friend in band class! We both played the flute and she seemed nice since she tried to help me get situated. When lunch came around, I saw her in the cafeteria and decided to sit with her!
When I sat down, I noticed that everyone at the table was staring at me. I looked around and saw that all of the students at the table were white. They all gave me a look that I soon realized meant, "why are you sitting here with us? Shouldn't you be over there with them?" Then looking about the lunchroom,
I realized at that moment the cafeteria was divided with white students to one side and black students to another.
Very different compared to who I used to sit with at lunch!
After that day, the girl who I thought wanted to be friends with me from my band class acted strange towards me and I just sat outside or in the bathroom at lunchtime. I started to really hate school.
In actuality, this was something I noticed from that day forward until high school and I even tried to speak about it to others but no one wanted to hear me. Everyone seemed complacent about it and did not really care do anything about it. I tried again to bring it to students attention for our high school graduation speech, however, I got rejected since I knew speaking about issues of race seem negative and probably do not want to hear on a happy day...
But when would we bring it to each others attention so we can change it? Weren't we going to be the next generation of leaders in the world?
If you liked my story, please share or connect with me on Instagram! Let's support each other to make a positive change -Megan #beunbounded
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