IN UNCHARTERED TERRITORY

The fall of 1962 found me in a place that I had never been before.  I was the new kid at school.  I started my junior year of high school at JEB Stuart High School and  I didn't know anyone.  I had never had to worry in the past about making friends or trying to fit in at school.  I went to school with kids from my neighborhood and ward that I had known a long time. I had absolutely no skills when it came to making new friends.  I was totally lost.

I was nervous and scared as I walked in the doors of high school on that first day.  It was hard enough that I had to find my way around a new school.  But not having anyone that I knew to at least help me find my way from class to class made the experience even worse.  I was also upset that even though I'd been accepted into the A Capella choir at my old high school, I was put in girls chorus at the new school.  I was told it was because I was basically an unknown quantity in the choral music department. I had to prove myself.  It was like adding insult to injury. 

On that first day of school, I discovered that I did know at least one person.  When roll was called in one of my classes, a girl who had been a pretty good friend in elementary school was in the class.  We made the connection. She was a cheerleader and in the very popular crowd at school.  And as high school cliques go, they weren't going to just include me in their group because I was Ann's friend from elementary school.  Again, I had to prove myself.

I floundered through most of my junior year trying to fit in and make friends.  Thank goodness that I had associations with the kids from LDS Seminary and my ward or the year probably would have been a total disaster.  I also vowed to myself, that if I could at all help it, I would never make any children that I had change high schools with only two years left.  It was just too hard for me.  I knew it would be hard for them.