Friends To The End

Certain people are affected by certain events or individuals that greatly change their life. Many people have influenced me during my life but there are three people that have had a special effect on me: Malachi, Krystina and Reva. In the four years that I have known them, they have been my best friends, and have helped to transform me from a lonely middle school scholar into a happy high school senior with a decent social life.

Earlier in my life, because I had few friends other than my cousins, I concentrated mostly on school and sports, paying little attention to life outside my studies. My high grades made me the target of torment during elementary school, the name calling: nerd, geek, and worse, it was so bad that I was ostracized by some of the class, and I shielded myself by further isolation. My Middle School experience was no different. I was still a loner. All the dances passed by, and I found other, solitary ways to occupy myself. I rarely took time to hang out with fellow students during weekends or vacation time.

Then came high school, and in Mrs. Konzellman's English I class I sat next to this energetic guy named Malachi, who joked about certain people and their lives, how he poked fun at the way our teacher's name was pronounced, and satirized the teacher's methodology of hand-signals for facts, generalizations, and cause/effect. Finding common ground in our senses of humor, and love of football, we grew acquainted with each other. Later in the year we teamed up as partners in a classic game of The $25,000 pyramid. To Mrs. Konzellman's dismay, a tie caused the game to last two weeks; now even though she had planned for it to take three days; the other team drew a blank, making us the winners of the game. More importantly it was also the result of true friendship and shared learning. We each had a great deal of fun guessing words for the clues and executing our strategy, and after the game we remained good friends.

Tenth grade would be a notable year. Malachi introduced me to Krystina and Reva, our classmates in Culinary Arts I. The four of us had a great time making our first homemade apple pie together; even though the very first pie exploded in oven. In the end, we all had a great time eating our final product and earning our first A together. In March, Krystina invited me to her Sweet Sixteen birthday party, the first major social occasion that I had attended in years. I will always remember the wonderful time we all had dancing and celebrating; just making a complete fool out of ourselves.

Later in the year, we all signed up to take the Writing Competency Test for an internship in English class, which was more difficult than easy. Even though we all did not pass, the teacher did like some of our responses. In May, Malachi invited Krystina, Reva and me to his house for a study party, hoping that we could learn enough of English II to excel on the Final exam. After wasting most of the afternoon watching TV, we highlighted the review book, reviewed some of the terms and concepts and

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