"You meet me after school right here," I said.
"Why?" he asked.
I couldn't believe he was so stupid.
"Because we're going to finish this fight."
"You're crazy," Roger said.
He go to his feet and walked away. His gang stared at me like I was a
serial killer, and they followed their leader.
I was absolutely confused.
I had followed the rules of fighting. I had behaved exactly the way I was
supposed to behave. But these white boys had ignored the rules. In fact, they
followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT
GET INTO FISTFIGHTS.
"Wait," I called after Roger.
"What do you want?" Roger asked.
"What are the rules?"
"What rules?"
I didn't know what to say, so I just stood there red and mute like a stop
sign. Roger and his friends disappeared.
I felt like somebody had moved me into a rocket ship and blasted me to a
new planet. I was a freaky alien and there was absolutely no way to get
home.
Has this ever happened to you? Describe a situation in which you thought you were following the "rules" or norms, but then found out that you actually weren't? How did this make you feel? Did you feel like an alien, like Junior did? Or did you teach the people around you a new perspective?
-Please respond in AT LEAST 4-5 sentences.
One situation is when there was the first football game of the season and i wore my lanyard to the game. I thought since in school you had to wear it, I thought you had to wear it to the games also. The entire game. When I showed up to the game I looked like an idiot for actually wearing mine around my neck. While everyone else just had theirs in there pocket. It was a very embarrasing moment and I felt like everyone was staring at me. Even though it wasnt that big of a deal, people defiently noticed that I was wearing my lanyard when I didnt have to.
ReplyDeleteSometimes this happens to me, mostly it only occurs when I wear the wrong type of clothing to an event. Usually it doesn't bother me; unless I totally messed up and wore something not appropriate for that gathering because i overlooked it. I usually don't feel to embarrassed nor do I feel like an outcast. Hopefully the people there can see my perspective, that it is in human nature to mess up sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteThis has actually happened to me several times. The biggest situation is when i wear wrong type of clothing. For example maybe i will be over dressed or maybe under dressed. At first i felt left out in a way feeling like an alien just like Junior. But after a while i started to get comfortable not even noticing that i was wearing the wrong type of clothes. And after a while people just pay attention more to my personality then actually noticing the wrong clothes that i was wearing at the event.
ReplyDeleteWell today the school made me get a new ID because i had stickers on my old one. I didnt think it was a problem, I thought it was mormal. I mean other people have stickers on there ID. But i was wrong. this mishap cost me $3 and a very frustrating mourning. i didnt feel like an alien but i did tell people my story and i think i changed their prospectivie.
ReplyDeleteyes this has happen to me before. It was when I new at plum grove and I didnt have many friend so I started to be loud and obinoxous because I thought it was the thing to do. But I learn that I didnt have to be loud and obnoxiousto be notice and my friends would come to me. I did feel like junior in that he didnt know that he could get friends and stand up for himself.
ReplyDeleteI have never really been someone who follows rules. I like to make up my own rules. But when it comes to being in a group which is all about rules its hard to be liked. You feel like an outsider if you don't follow the rules. I wish rules didn't exist.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a situation where this happened to me, but whats happening in the book right now with Junior not knowing the rules about fighting is exactly whats happening to my friends cousin right now. She just moved here from Alabama and shes coming to our school on monday. At her old school she used to get in tons of fights and she says that if anybody messes with her at our school that shes going to beat them up. After reading about this i think im going to talk to her about our rules of not starting random fights.
ReplyDeleteThe closest situation I've had with this is when I get pressured into stuff. I feel like I have to do it becuase I outnumbered. It's not nearly as severe as juniors because it's his first day at a school where he's the only one of his race. When the white kids say thier rules I think that is bs because everyone has different rules and rules are meant to be broken.
ReplyDeleteHaha Rayna....that sounds pretty funny! And yes...wearing the "wrong" thing is definitely something that can draw attention to someone and make them feel like an alien.
ReplyDeleteKevin-- you should tell your cousin that people don't really solve their problems with fighting here (although some knuckleheads do...). Isn't that interesting how different cultures (i.e.: the South, in your example) have different ways of doing things?
Um...i think there are many times I SHOULD have felt "alien" ... but... I was usually young, or having fun at the time and didn't think about it. I want to say I don't care at all but thats a lie...really? yea. Oh! I DO Always feel kinda' alian when I'm anywhare with a lot of people and I don't know any of them...or want to... (half of most the time) ^_^'
ReplyDeleteBTW: I think those fighting rules of Jr.'s are funny (and stupid) but funny. they remind me of a wolf pack...but instead of verbal insults think motions + action and bla blabla.
well thats it...
LAURA BONO's ~Homework~
This happens to me every basketball season. The day of a geame we play before varsity we have to dress up to school and to the game. It's really weird being all dressed up with a tie and everyone else dressed casual. I always get the "Why are you so dressed up?". It makes me feel like an alien a little, but it also makes me unique and stick out from others.
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure that I can think of a specific time this has happened to me, but I'm sure it has. I've probably worn the wrong type of clothing for that event or we should have dressed up and I wore jeans. I've feel like everyone is staring at me like "why isn't she dressed up like everyone else?" or "why is she wearing sweatpants?" That's why rules are good sometimes and we need direction because otherwise it kind of does makes me feel like an alien or outsider because there isn't a set of rules for what to do.
ReplyDeletethis has happened to me before when i first moved out of the city i felt wierd because i as the only black kid in a school full of white kids i sorta felt the way junior does i didnt feel like the norm because i looked differently than everybody else but i finally became comfortable with my enviornment.
ReplyDeleteUm this really hasn’t ever happened to me. I’ve Always have been really shy and quiet in the beginning of anything new, and unless there’s something or someone that I’ve already been familiarized with I’m just really quiet. And the reason I’m always quiet, when introduced or around something new, is because I observe anything and everything to get familiarized and comfortable in the environment. So I kind of learn the norms and rules, without making mistakes and then learning from them. And I don’t think I’ve ever taught anyone a new or my perspective through this only because I have always tried to stay out of things until I know what I’m doing.
ReplyDeleteumm. i can't think of a specific time thats happened to me.. but im sure that it has happened... a lot. mhmm.but sometimes i'll be a little slow at getting a joke or somethingg.&& i'll feel out of place or kindah like an "alien".. but i eventually get it. then its all good. (:
ReplyDeleteI never had an experience like Jr.'s but I have had people stare at me like I was crazy. They would stare even if I was just standing or doing something noraml. To them me just being who I am and looking the way I do is not noraml and therefore alien like. Of course I noticed them staring and I let them know that i saw them but I didn't care. It will take a lot more than ignorant eyes to make me feel like I don't belong.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever had a moment like this because either I'm too afraid of having them so I try to avoid them by seeing what other people do and how they act first and doing the same myself, or because i just don't care enough to notice. I'm sure at some point in my life I've done something that would normally embarrass someone but it didn't bother me just because I don't care if i look dumb.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been in a situation like Jr, but i have been in one where I thought i was doing the right thing. One example that i can think of was when I was at lunch one day and my friends at my lunch table where making fun of another one of my friends at our table. They we're being serious, but after a while, she started to get mad. I thought I'd stick up for her and tell them to stop, but right after I did, she yelled at me and told me she could stick up for herself. I was kind of confused but just left it alone because I didn't want to make her more mad.
ReplyDeleteI cant really think of a time when i was as confused as Junior was but there has been many times when i have been somewhat confused about the "unwritten rules". Such as wearing the wrong cloathes to a party or event. Although i can relate to moving to a diffrent school. This is because growing up I went to St. Theresa which was a pretty small school and it went from pre-k all the way up to 8th grade. So you know everyone in the grade and all the teachers knew all the kids and thier families very well. So when i finaly graduated and came to fremd it was alot diffrent here because there are way more people here and you barely know half the grade really well let alone the teachers knowing everyone and their families just as well
ReplyDeleteI don't think the situations I have been in are as bad as junior's but I feel this way when i wear the wrong clothing choice to an event. When I'm not dressed up enough to me it seems like people are thinking that I just don't care. Sometimes I feel like an alien when I'm with people I don't know very well, so I don't know what to say.
ReplyDeleteonce when i was in 7th grade and it was a new school and i thought that we just had one class that we stayed in the whole day, instead of moving aroundd so when the 1st period (my homeroom) was over i just sat in my seat like an idiot not knowing why everyone else was leaving without me..it took me 10 min to find my next class and i looked like an idiot walking in 10 min late hahaha
ReplyDeletei learned that you need to keep moving after each class.
Im not sure that i have been in the same situation as jr, but iv had many situations that come close. I know there are times when i feel like im doing the right thing and trying to be nice but i guess im not?? Like one time my friend was going through a hard time and she was telling me all about these issues with her boyfriend and her family. I was trying to be a good friend and listen to her and then give her some advice but then she got mad at me and told me i didnt understand and blah blah blah. i was like alright, your cool. i was just trying to help. i hate when things like that happen.
ReplyDelete