, Research Paper
Everyone is affected by certain events or individuals that greatly change their
life. Many people have influenced me during my life. Three wonderful friends
that have had a special effect on me are Ryan, Alicia and Ana. In the three
years that I have known them well, they have been my best friends, and have
helped to transform me from a lonely middle school loner into a happy senior
with a decent social life. Popular wisdom has it that, “You judge a man by his
friends.” Earlier in my life, that would have been difficult, because I had few
friends other than my cousins. I concentrated mostly on school and TV,
paying little attention to life outside my studies. My high grades made me the
target of torment during elementary school, the name calling: nerd, geek, and
worse, was so bad that I was ostracized by some of the class, and I shielded
myself by further isolation. My Middle School experience was no different. I
was still a loner. All the dances passed by, and I found other, solitary ways to
occupy myself. I rarely took time to hang out with fellow students during
weekends or vacation time, I was too busy watching television and playing
Nintendo. Then came high school, and in Mrs. Jone’s Ancient History class I
sat next to this energetic guy named Ryan, who joked about the no-brained
teenagers working in 7-11’s, made fun of the way our teacher dramatized the
pronunciation of the Huang-Ho and Yangtze Rivers, and satirized the
teacher’s methodology of hand-signals for facts, generalizations, and
cause/effect. Finding common ground in our senses of humor and love of the
TV Simpson’s, we grew acquainted with each other. Later in the year we
teamed up as the defense lawyers in a class debate trial in which Mao
Zedong was charged with crimes against the people of China. To Mrs. Jone’s
dismay, “legal wrangling” caused the debate trial to last two weeks, even
though she had planned for it to take three days, until it was resolved by a
split decision, with the jury voting 6 guilty and 6 innocent. More important
than the result was the experience of friendship and shared learning. We each
had a great deal of fun preparing questions for the witnesses and planning our
cross-examinations, and after the trial we remained good friends. Tenth grade
would be a notable year. Ryan introduced me to Alicia and Ana, our
class
movie, based on the allegory Redwall, at Ryan’s house. Our filming day
coincided with a storm, so the outside scenes were hilarious. Plus, when we
jumped up against the side of Ryan’s house, we knocked down some books
off a shelf inside. In the end, we all had a great laugh watching our final
product. In March, Ana invited me to her sweet Fifteenth-birthday party, the
first major social occasion that I had attended in years. I will always
remember the wonderful time we all had dancing and celebrating. Later in the
year, we made another movie for English class, which was more of a satire.
In it we managed to include many of our history teacher Mrs. Lemma’s
infamous quotes by working them into the lines of Basil Stag Hare, a
character from the Redwall novel who often spoke in nonsense. In June Ana
invited Alicia and me to her house for a study party, hoping that we could
learn enough of World History to excel on the mid term finals exam. After
wasting most of the afternoon watching TV, we highlighted the review book,
and we were finally ready for the big test. Last fall Ana and Alicia convinced
me to go to the Homecoming dance, and I began to realize all the fun that life
has to offer. It was only natural that the group of us had an even better time at
our Junior Prom. I must admit that if I had never met them, I would have
missed out on the complete experience of a truly special occasion. On a
Halloween party we all went dressed in costumes, with Ryan dressed as an
outrageous mime and I in the less exotic costume of a carpetbagger. That
night we took a trip through the haunted house; we were blinded by the
strobe light in the basement, and scared out of our wits when a ‘ghost’
jumped out of a fake coffin and started up a chain saw. Now, as the first to
have a driver’s license, I’ve become the chauffeur to dances, movies, and
restaurants. As one might guess, Al, Ray and Ana have all exerted a positive
influence on me. Now that I’m a senior and no longer live near my best
friends, not even in the same country, I have a more sense of self-confidence
that ignited from these three marvelous persons. This self-confidence has
helped me create a new home in Brazil. So you can certainly see that not only
have these persons most influenced me, but left foot prints on my soul