Acceptance

During our group's first team bonding day at the beginning of the school year Mr. Kane had us all work to develop a few goals for the following months together. One of these goals included trying to eliminate cliques within our group. As soon as I read it I could tell that it was far-reaching and probably unattainable. As we're all high school students, forming cliques is inevitably our favorite thing to do. Once we find a close group of friends, we typically stay with them and avoid all other excessive interaction. Even by the last meeting, I really believed we hadn't come close to our goal. I remember looking around the room and seeing everyone in the same seats they had sat in at every meeting, with the same people holding private conversations. When we were pushed  to decide whether or not we had accomplished it everyone agreed that we had. I still couldn't find it in myself to agree, but didn't speak up to avoid seeming too pessimistic. Later, when we left for New Orleans  I thought the unsociable attitude between groups was still evident. Throughout the year I've often felt like an outsider within the group. As a first year member it's especially hard to gain that sense of community with everyone else. I've never been especially extroverted so for me it was even harder to escape my infinitesimal comfort zone.  To my surprise this all finally changed once we arrived. It was almost as if  just being surrounded by the beautiful city changed everyone's perception of each other. As soon as we walked outside of the stress-ridden airport everyone had suddenly become best friends. I found myself running around in a small patch of grass outside completely giddy at the fact that there was no snow in sight and I had the entire week ahead of me. I no longer cared about who my previous "clique" had included, and neither did anyone else. We all acted as though these social barriers between us never existed.  Today, on the sixth day of the trip, I'm talking to people I never really did during the school year. And although we find ourselves sometimes regressing back to our usual groups, it's nothing like what it had been.  I've become incredibly comfortable, often times too comfortable, around people I had barely spoken to prior to our arrival. I don't have to battle with  as many feelings of inferiority or  outlandishness. As cheesy as it sounds, we really have become one big family. I love each member of this group more than words can express and the unity between us is stronger than I ever could have thought possible.

Molly Cassidy