Girls just want to learn

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“Many girls like Varsha and Shalan are now pedaling between two and five kilometers to attend high school”, states V Radhika in her article Have cycle, will study. After reading this article, I was embarrassed as I thought about my own experience of deciding which high school to attend. I was excited at the idea of attending the high school I was zoned for which was located about 1.5 miles from my home, however my mom felt it would be better if I attended the private school located on the other end of the city. I was given a choice attend the school my mom liked and get a car once I was sixteen or attend the school I wanted and immediately receive a bike for my transportation, I choose the car. There are girls that just want an opportunity to attend school that they are excited when choosing to receive a bike knowing the will be riding much farther than the 1.5 miles I would have traveled.
I would say that my educational experience as an adolescent was tough and I experienced the, “Friendships: Gone Well, Gone Poorly, just Gone.” In sixth grade, my father died in a car accident immediately classmates started to treat me differently so I begin to focus more on my schoolwork. Once I started working harder in class teachers took notice and moved me to advance classes, this created an even bigger divide between me and the other five girls I felt were my friends. They teased me about being in gifted classes, they laughed at what they decide was a little girl’s hairstyle. Although I often felt it would be easier to join the pack, fail some test and get back to “normal” classes having lunch with the girls always made me see how I was better off. It was very rare that everyone would like each other and more common that two or three girls would be mad at each other. Like Sarah in “Lies We Have Told”, I had been friends with some of these girls for many years and was not sure if I wanted to just let that go. However, I soon decide that it was just too much work to know who was safe to talk to on a particular day and instead joined clubs and made new friends.

Comments

Jen said…
I relate to your confusion in deciding who is a 'real' friend and who is just someone there to hang out with. During most of high school I had to work to find friends in a small town student population, the kind of school where everyone has known everyone since kindergarten. Sometimes I felt the girls that I went out with were just stand ins. They passed around inside jokes that I wasn't on the inside of. I just felt on the outside all the time. I think that's where female differ from males in their relationships. Growing up watching my brothers' and my boyfriend's friendships it seems that males aren't always searching for a connection with their friends. They're OK with someone to just hang out with. On the other hand, I think finding a friend you can connect with is an essential part of girlhood for most females.
September 13, 2009 at 8:22 PM
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