Student’s Writings

Doing the Right Thing

Doing the Right Thing

by Jayla Nickens-Gill

How do you help someone who won’t even help themself? How do you be there for someone who has given up on so much in life? How do you do the right thing, even when it’s hard? 

I went to school with a girl. I won’t say her name for privacy reasons, but she was always sad and depressed. She never wanted to try anything or do anything. She would sit by herself and just exist, didn’t look like she was even alive, she probably didn’t feel alive. I would stare at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking about, and ways I could help her, but my mind was blank. I could’ve just gone on with my life, not caring about this girl like all the other students, but I couldn’t. I knew I had to help her.

One  day I decided that I would be a person she could rely on. When I went to school that day, she was sitting down at one of the lunch tables reading a book. As I made my way over to her, I stopped in my tracks as I watched as the “mean” girl pushed the sad girl off the chair.  The “mean” girl was way taller than me and the sad girl. I walked over and helped the girl off the floor. That’s when I noticed the cuts on her arm. I felt like someone kicked me in the stomach. I felt like I was going to vomit after seeing the fresh cuts she had made. I watched as she quickly pulled her sleeves down to cover her arm. 

I grabbed her and took her to the bathroom. I asked the most basic question. “Why?” and she started crying, she just stood in the middle of the bathroom crying. She told me how she was tired of being bullied, she was tired of not being able to be herself, she was tired of everything, and she didn’t want to feel alone anymore. I walked over and hugged her. I didn’t know this girl. I didn’t know her name or where she lived but I hugged her. I could feel her tears through my shirt as she cried. We spent the rest of the school day inside the bathroom together. 

The next few days, it was me and this girl sitting together at lunch. Us sitting together at lunch turned into us spending hours at my house, which turned into us being best friends. This girl who had been sad and depressed is now outgoing and happy. She’s no longer alone and she’ll never be alone. Every time I see her I know I did the right thing. 

10/8/2021

It’s Not Easy Being Tiny

It’s Not Easy Being Tiny

by Chase Christou

I’m short. Like very short. Too short. Being short is a weird, and cool experience. It’s sometimes depressing, and sometimes really great. I sort of feel bad for tall people. You’ll never get to experience being short and standing next to a huge building and just feeling so tiny.  If you’re tall you’ll still most likely feel tiny but being short just makes it so much better.

Some history about me. I’ve been short all my life. In middle school I was around 4’6. Yeah short. Going through middle school for me being short was a semi-humbling and quite fun experience you could call it. Luckily for me I had a pretty good group of friends, I mean they still teased me of course. Can’t escape that. But they were nice. The other kids in the school weren’t extremely mean either. So I’d say my middle school journey was quite lucky actually, and I enjoyed it.

Fast forward to high school and now I’m around 5’3. Grew a lot during quarantine. Pretty cool how that works. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still short. I’m just a lot taller. I’m glad I’m here in this school, I don’t know if I would have been able to survive public highschool.  Now that I’m here for 4 years hopefully, I have time to grow both physically and mentally. But I don’t really care too much about being the tallest person in the class. Of course I don’t want to go back to being 4ft. But I’m honestly fine with being short. That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. 

Us tiny people, we still have struggles. Just like you tall people. Being short has its advantages of course. Firstly, I’m always in the front of the line when it goes by height. Like picture day for example, front and center. Another great perk in being short, I am a god at hide n seek. I used to be a lot shorter and therefore a lot better, but I’m still the best. I can fit into basically anything. Then again there are disadvantages that come with being short, like the very real possibility of being trampled. Probably one of the worst ways to die. One really sad thing that comes with being short, you can’t touch the top of doors. I have never done it and it’s something I will never get to do, quite sad.  Something else that sucks about being short is teasing. You learn to just ignore it as you get older, which I don’t personally find too hard. It usually makes for a funny moment to look back on and laugh at them. Something else that gets really really annoying for short people is not being able to fit into clothes. This doesn’t happen too often but when it does it’s annoying. 

The most common annoyance that comes with being short would be not being able to reach things. I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve needed to climb up onto my counter at home to simply grab a bowl. I can reach it now thankfully but wow that time sucked. I feel even worse for the short adults who have to go shopping being short. Something else that isn’t really a disadvantage for an advantage is tall people pat you on the head. I don’t understand why.

In the end I think being short is a weird experience, but not a particularly bad one for some. Some people have it really bad being short in some places, which sucks because being short is better than being tall. Every short person has their own bad memories and times of being down about being short, but just remember this: Us short people are faster than you.

10/1/21