Let me get quite “unprofessional” here. This is a long story of a kid who has moved a lot of places and saw [hopefully] quite a lot during his adjustment to a new environment. I got facial paralysis when I was around 3-4 grade, and I haven’t recovered ever since. Shy, I have moved to many places: from China to the United States, Maryland to Georgia, Bell Elementry to Chattahoochee High. Although I know that it wasn’t my fault nor my appearance’s fault when I got rejected multiple times trying to join well-established friend groups now, I was previously.
Without intervention, most friend groups in school tend to resist changes; therefore, existing members resist newcomers. I am an introvert, who never has the charisma he was supposed to gain from daily interactions with others. Making matters worse, I am a kid who only makes friends in his “countryside ways”.
Many newcomers have also formed friendships with their parents. More clearly, not only the encouragement they give but also the friendships that form through families and during gatherings. Churches, work, and school events, all have introduced parents as well as students together. Luckily, I got the encouragement of my mother and the many teachers that I trust; however, since my family is busy with work and has difficulties with language barriers, I never had the chance to “inherit” a friend. XD
I built a shell for myself, and I stayed inside it for many years. I am grateful for this experience. I gained myself many isolated times to form my ideas and personalities to be independent from others. This gives me the energy to pursue my passion, reading historical books. With those many isolated times, I grew strong in my will to devote myself to causes I care about while gaining insights into how to make others not face the struggles or ignorance that I had.
I would like to thank many and many people who have been in my life, friends I met in ESOL, in middle school or high school, my mother, etc… My mother, who was a literature teacher previously, nurtured my heart toward (biased here lol) actions for good. My friends gave me the courage to form this organization, and there is one ESOL student volunteer who has given me the spark for me to pass down.
FeTcH with its projects carries a personal relationship with me; I have devoted part of my time to, hopefully, introduce newcomers and English learners since I learn some, not proficient, English in Elementary. Enhance Buddy system, I wish it could provide a more structured platform for newcomers to seek help from; Parent Networking By Culture and Language, during my realization of how adults would play in the adjustment process, I hope I could make it into a platform that allows parents to have the ability to form bonds and acquire information; being a first gen student, I have fully experiences the one reason why we have missed so many opportunities. Governor Honors Program and summer programs can serve as some examples that I experienced; it isn’t that there aren’t free of cost and good opportunities out there. It is simply the fact that we never look for it since we never know such opportunities exist. If I hadn’t searched for programs like MITES, I would never have known that there are some other opportunities other than self-learning or summer credited courses. If I had never been nominated into MSLC by my school counselor, I would never have known there is something called summer programs. I would like Parent Networking By Culture and Language to become a source of information for parents and students like me, first gen. SECCHANCE is one idea that I got when I was feared to talk once again, after many and many realizations that I was misunderstood by many others.