Stereotypes in America

Before we continue, I'm afraid I have bad news. the other day I stepped on the scale in the bathroom and it turns out I am 1**lbs. Now this confused me, as me coming from Malaysia, I can only estimate things using the metric system. Nevertheless, when I gave my weight to my cousin, who is currently in medical school, he told me that I have gained 5 kilos in my 3 week stay here in the United States. 5 KILOS! Its amazing I am not needing a heart pump as I am typing this. Can you imagine! 5 KILOS! That's a third of the weight of my luggage I brought here, and I tell you, I'm pretty sure I did not eat 1/3rd of my clothes. 5 kilos. That could mean the difference between being a marathon runner, and having a stroke. I need to go on a diet. Maybe I'll change my daily 7-UP to a diet Pepsi, and we will see how things turn out.


On with your regularly scheduled programs



The 5 stereotypes that have been crushed:

1. The people are segregated.
2. People are not friendly, and will not talk to you.
3. People from other factions don't interact with one another.
4. Black people fight with the white people.
5. Seniors pick on juniors.

All of the above are untrue. As much as I have been told of the chasm between the blacks and the whites, I have never seen it happen. Never. I have been to school for the 3rd week now, and everyone talks freely among each other naturally. Kinda reminds me of old alma mater, Victoria Institution.

Despite the numerous occasions in which I have been told that I have to be the one to make contact with people, as it is an accepted fact that most people will not approach you to be friends, I have already had half the senior year come up to me to say hi. Many still do today. I have never approached anybody, and quite frankly, the uncalled for warnings before departure did nothing but scare me into seriously not going to school on my first day, purely out of fright. I probably have over 30 people whom I am on friendly terms with now, and I can proudly say, I remember almost half of their names.

Contrary to how an American high school is portrayed in movies, there to be many cliques, these just are not available in my school. What jocks? What nerds? What skaters? No such thing.

Another thing that really amazed me was the relationship between the senior classes and the freshmen and the sophomore class. Unlike back in Malaysia, where the 'juniors' get picked on for being younger, this sort of thing is almost unheard of in my school. I found out this fact when I was watching my fitness class, (which is mixed between the seniors and the juniors), fooling around on the basketball court. Never have I seen such a friendly bunch of people. they readily passed the ball to the smaller students without hesitation. They spoke words of encouragement to each other if anyone missed a shot, they cheered when anyone scored a basket. It was an inspiring sight. Amazing! I my old school, the seniors would only talk to the juniors when they needed money, and cheered them on in games if they have money betted on them. Threats were usually involved. the only recorded time of the seniors listening to the juniors would be after the police arrive, once the junior boy was fling through a second story window.

Although I have sworn to never talk about my life, deeming it to be an example of vanity, I simply had to tell everyone that all the pre conseptions I had, that some of you may share, are completely false.

To my co-workers, who are also putting their lives on the line in the spirit of good diplomacy who are experiencing a different situation then what I'm going through, I say this;

Sucks that you aren't in the Midwest, doesn't it?