Nervous, anxious… that is how I felt every time I was new in some place, I am not saying only at school, but also in my first day at university. This is because we don’t know what we are going to find in this new place, or if this is going to be what we expected, we are all afraid of the unknown or when facing new things. For some kids this is a particularly hard situation since children can be really mean; they are always making differences between themselves like fat and thin or beautiful and ugly kids, also they can call other children with a nickname that perhaps affects their feelings, so they tend to feel afraid of being the new kid at school because basically every child just want to fit. And when we are children we want to be accepted so badly, to have a thousand friends, to be popular, or to form part of a group, otherwise we would be all alone at school, with nobody to play or talk during recess, and eventually all of these small things can affect our personality when we grow up. It is so hard to understand the human behavior and it can take such a long time to fit in a place, to find the people we really want to be with, and during this time where you are searching the place and people you could fit, you keep on wondering if your classmates like you or not, this is when kids start feeling sad, and parents can realize of this problem when kids say that they don’t want to go to school, and just want to stay at home.
But when I start to think about it, I realize that we were not afraid of being new at school, we were afraid of being rejected, of being alone or feel like an outsider.
I have faced this situation just three times, when I first went to primary school, after in secondary school and then university, so I never was the only one new in the classroom, and never felt overwhelmed of being new, I guess I took these circumstances as opportunities to get to know new people, and to have new friends. That is what everybody should think when having to live this situation, take it as a good opportunity.
It is completely different if you move to a new place, like a new city or even worse if you move to a new country, suddenly you find yourself all alone, your family and friends are away, the traditions, weather, religion, or even language could be different, maybe you have to wear clothes that you didn’t used to wear, for example if I’d move to England I would have to wear heavy clothes because English winters are really cold, I would not have the chance to eat what I usually eat here in Chile, actually I would have to change my entire diet, and also my manners because in England they are not used to our manners like the displays of affection or greetings, in other words I would have to change my lifestyle in order to fit in that country.
But as I said before, we must take these circumstances as opportunities that life gives to us, life is in continuous change and we should take advantage of every possibility, to have new adventures, to meet new people and make new friends.
