New Student
by Lillyster D.
I was born in Luxemburg, one the smallest countries in the world. This past August, I moved to New York: one of the biggest and busiest cities. Everything in New York is so different than in Luxemburg. For example, I felt like my building was a hotel because it has a doorman and beautiful chairs to sit in when you walk in the front
door. Apartment buildings in Luxemburg never have these things. Also, Luxemburg is full of grass and a lot less people. Almost everyone had a garden. But for me what changed the most was starting at my new school.
When I walked through the doors of PS6 on the first day of school, I was feeling nervous and scared. I was feeling nervous about speaking a new language at school and scared about meeting new friends. When we needed to be in line I didn’t want to go with my class. When I walked into my classroom, I was almost crying. I was too shy to speak to anyone and I was afraid that my English was not good enough.
When I came to the lunchroom, I didn’t know where to sit. I finally sat next to a girl in my class. I was too shy to speak, so I only said a few words to her. When I went to the yard, I didn’t know whom to play with or with whom to speak. I was completely lost. The yard is so different from my old school yard, which was full
of grass. I didn’t really know where I was. Everything looked so big. When I was playing and learning, I did my best to understand and speak in English. I really wanted to speak and play with others students. But I was scared to, and I wanted my stress to go away. I wanted to feel like I had been here for a long time instead of feeling like I was so new. I knew it was impossible to feel this way at first. It was my first day of school and I wanted to be like the other kids around me. I wanted to have friends, to know my way around the school and to know how to speak English perfectly. How could I do that? I was a new student coming from a foreign country.
Now that it’s October, I’m feeling so much better because I now more about my school. I know the rules, I know my way around, I know how things work in my classroom, and I know my schedule. I know that when my class goes to science, that we will go to the science room . In my old school, I just had science in my regular classroom. Also, I’ve made some friends so now I know a lot more people too. And my English is getting better and better. It’s so much easier to write, talk and understand what people are saying to me. My reading and writing has improved a lot. So, IF YOU ARE NEW to something, remember that it’s normal to be scared. But
don’t be scared to be yourself.