influence :: essays papers

influenceSmall-minded administrators and authority figures like to speak in clichs. All my life I heard the same trite line You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep. The black sheep of the honors program, I hung out with the so-called losers. During my freshman year, not a day went by when a teacher or family member did not bemock my closest friends and warn me that by hanging out with bad seeds I would fall into a downward spiral, never graduate college, and have a inadequate life. They thought that they had me figured out. One day, while my ninth grade math teacher, Mr. Pedersen, was reviewing some math concepts with me, my friend Mariam ran by the classroom, stuck her head in the doorway, called out Hi Yassee, and then ran away. Mr. Pedersen looked at me coldly and said with a scowl How can you call yourself an Honors student? A real honors student doesnt associate with great deal like that I wanted to ask him how he could call himself a teacher after al l, a real teacher is supposed to want to dish up everyone. Instead, I sat silent, stunned by his ignorance and cruelty. He wanted me to drop my childhood friends simply because they didnt place the same importance on school assignment that I do. If he had thought before speaking, he would have realized that people like him, rather than people like my friends, are better equal to turn good students into poor ones by discouraging them with ridiculous comments. I would never slight Mariam. One of my closest friends in freshman year, she was also a below average, non-college bound student. Many of the adults in my life, especially my parents and teachers, would look at those closest to me Mariam, Alisa, Zena, Lianne, and Marvin, and ask how I could call these low-life losers my friends. But such questions show a lack of understanding of the nature of friendship. Friendship is unconditional and uncritical, based only on mutual respect and the ability to enjoy each other s company. The se authority figures never saw the way one of us could do something outrageous, and the rest of us would joke about it for days. We could have fun doing absolutely vigor at all - because the company we provided each other with was enough.