“Wait, do you go to Skyline?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, what class are you in?”
“I’m a senior.”
This was a conversation I had with another student when we were leaving the AP Chinese testing building – two weeks ago.
Ever since I landed in Ann Arbor last September, I’ve constantly had a small voice whisper in my head: “You could have had the chance to become friends with them, if only you had been here last year.”
Rewind back to the spring of 2023, when I was brutally pulled out of International school in China after skipping 9th grade. I was thrown into school in Alabama by my parents because of their work change. There, I took eight classes a day without a lunch period and three more online courses at home for a full 14 months to make up for the 9th grade I skipped. During all this, I successfully made a total of zero friends while having mental breakdowns everyday in art class because I hated it so much.
One thing about me is that I’m an arrogant brat: I know who I am as well as what I want. If I’m not thriving somewhere, then there’s something wrong with the environment. I told my parents I needed to go back to Michigan, where I went to school for kindergarten and first grade back in 2014. Two weeks before I started my senior year, I moved to Ann Arbor and started officially living alone and enrolled as a new student in Skyline.
I started talking to people on the school bus on my very first day, I started making friends in class, and having conversations with teachers. That’s when I knew I had made the right decision.
Looking back, and looking around right now, I have nothing to say but thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. O for being the teacher, the person you are for me and your other students. Your ceramics classes were the most wonderful experience of my life that I will never forget and always feel joy when I think back to it.
Thank you Mrs. Mathewson and Mrs. Warner for making APES the easiest class to learn and let us talk about nonsense during work time. I got to know the friends I made in that class so well because of your tolerance.
Thank you Mrs. Schimmel for taking the time to work so patiently with me and my family to sort out my incredibly complicated situation.
Thank you to all my friends and people who decided to just talk to me this year. You are the people who make school somewhere I don’t dread going to everyday.
Finally, thank you to all the beautiful, kind, loving humans whom I have run out of space to write about: Please stay this way: someone like me who struggled to find a place of peace and inclusion needed you. Your love never goes to waste and will only become an inspiration to others like me. As an awkward, freshly imported newcomer who was struggling to find a place of belonging, I just want Skyline to know that it’s been a pleasure to be a part of this school. Thank you.
