Culture

In sixth grade, Seema and I became best friends. I just an average American kid and her parents had moved to the U.S. from India. She was raised in the Indian culture and it was a big part of her life.
She invited our friend, Laura and I to go to an Indian festival with her. We went to her house to get ready. We borrowed beautiful Indian dresses from Seemas family and her mom did our makeup and hair. We borrowed jewelery from them too. The dress was so different from the jeans I was used to wearing.
The festival consisted of dancing, singing and food. Once we got there Laura and I were about the only white kids there. Everyone was was Indian. They all knew how to speak in one of Indias languages and knew the dances that were being performed. I felt like such an outsider. The feeling only got worse once it was time to eat.
I am a very picky eater and hate to try to new things. This was not helpful when all the food looked and smelled disgusting. Seemas mom was very sweet and recommend food to eat. She would say, "This food is not spicy." Or,"Don't eat this. You will not like it." I didn't like any of the food. Everything either had a gross sauce on it or was too spicy.
Even though I did not fit in I still had a lot of fun. I enjoyed experiencing parts of Seemas life. It helped to open up my eyes as to why Seema did the things she did. Even though I stuck out, I throughly enjoyed myself.

Thing that has shaped my identity

One thing that has shaped my identity is meeting and being friends with Sara. We met when we were in 7th grade. Sara is a very outgoing person who loves to have fun. I am kind of quiet but I also love to have fun. Sara and I hated each other at first but once we realized how much we had in common we clicked. We started hanging out together outside of school. We would go shopping and have sleepovers. Sara invited me to her youth group one night and that night changed my life. I loved it. Sara kept inviting me back, so I kept going. She invited me to a conferece called Acquire the Fire and that was when I became a Christian. This is the biggest way that Sara has helped shape my identity.

We became the best of friends and were immediately unseperable. We would have weekend long sleepovers were we would do anything from talk to rearrange her room. Sara helped me open up to people I didn't know and accept people that weren't like me. We evened each other out. She helped me become more outgoing and I helped her settle down. Sara is one of the main reasons that I am the person I am today. I wouldn't trade our friendship for anything in the world.

oldest memory

My oldest memory is from before I started kindergarten. It was probably the summer before I started school. My mom had showed me where I was going to go school and it was a few blocks away from our house. I was very excited to go.
My mom also did daycare and my best friend at daycare was Grant. We were best friends and the same age. He was also going to go to the same school as me.
The school we were going to was called Gage. There was a smaller school right next to it for the kindergarteners called Gage East. However, some kindergarteners did go to Gage.
One afternoon my family and I were driving home from grocery shopping at Hy-Vee. On the way home we passed Gage East. I got very excited. I pointed and yelled,"That's where I'm gonna go to school!" My mom smiled and said, "Yes, is it."
I continued, "Grant is gonna to school there too!"
This is my first memory. It's not long, but it's the first.