New place, New you, New Me

New place, New you, New Me

Are you scared that in this new place you can't protect everyone like you used to?

Face to face with all these changes, what is it all about? Life is crazy but I know I can work it out. There is nothing scarier that starting a new phase in life, moving to a new place, discovering an unknown environment and with it the challenges that come to us. I have said that I identify with Farkle but this episode reminded me why my friends tell me I am more like Lucas. Nothing can put more pressure on friendships and our morale than a new chapter in our life. When we have spent a long time in one place like Riley and her friends we can feel invincible, we can feel like kings but kingdoms fall, massacres occur, everyone who thinks they are strong comes up against someone stronger. But the war has just begun. Riley and her friends enter high school; it is their first day fresh from middle school and as their luck has it they encounter the seniors. They send them to the “hole” and tell them that they need to stay there, they can’t explore the school until they are told so by them. Lucas is not having any of it, they tell him that his friends are nothing in this new place. The two senior girls give the nickname spunky to Maya, they tell them that the hallway is for people who have earned it, the senior football player tells him that when his friends tell them to do something they should do it. Lucas stands up to defend his friends like he always has, he can’t walk anywhere he wants because they say so, that is not okay.

Lucas: sorry guys

Farkle: it is not your fault, you can’t protect us

Lucas: I used to  

I know what that is like. I went to the same school for most of my life and when I got to high school I made a name for myself in it like everyone else. I was confident, I had grown as a person. I made my name in sports, in academics, I was king. I could protect my friends from anyone that wanted to hurt them, I stood up for the people that were different or for my friends who needed help, who were picked on. I stood up to raise my opinion, to question people who were wrong, to praise those who were right. I was Lucas, taking the responsibility of the world in my shoulders because I knew I could, I could protect myself and my friends or anyone. Then half way through 11^th grade I changed school. Change can be intimidating, all the power (more like the confidence to stand up for yourself and other gone). I was no longer first choice player in the football team, in the swimming team, in the classroom to answer questions. Lucas is no longer top athlete, there are people bigger, stronger than him. There are people smarter than Farkle. Certain people, like the seniors, feel the need to make us feel unwelcome in these new places. Some go as far as to cause great suffering in our lives through bullying telling us that we are nothing. They feel the need to “bring us down from our cloud”. In a way they are right, we must make a name for ourselves in this new place. Past successes won’t drive our future in these new places but they have taught us lessons and given us the tools to overcome these new obstacles. We may not be kings now, but we will. Farkle may not be the smartest kid in the school anymore and Lucas may not be the strongest so what we do is get stronger, get smarter, never let them discourage us because they are not better than us. One aspect of our lives does not define us. I was good at swimming, at football, at academics but it is the accumulation of these things and your values that make you great, that made you kings. Lucas is a great football player, strong but what made him great and respected was his loyalty, determination, kindness, fairness. We are something and we will teach them that we are something like Lucas did.

Riley: the seniors are older and more experience than us. They are trying to help us. (it is the wrong view that people in higher positions or that are older know more than us. Sometimes we know best and people that abuse their power should not be able to, we cannot let them.)

Lucas: They are making fun of us and we are letting them do it. We don’t even know our way around the school yet, why would we just let ourselves be parked in a hole

Riley: Ok so you just want us to throw ourselves into whatever is going on in this place and just see what happens?

Lucas: Yes, because you know what I call that, normal

These people that bully us feel the need to be recognised as superiors because no one else does, they are threatened, jealous of what we bring, don’t let words get to you. There is a reason why they pick on us and not someone else. You can’t let the change and the people who pick on you because you are new break you. They only win if they can manage to convince you that you are nothing. Remember what makes you great and work towards improving. Like Lucas stand up to them, defy them, show them that maybe they are kings now and you are not, but that will change. In these periods of change if you are bullied, if you are told you are not good enough, if you are told you have no place, never let it bring you down. Make a place like you have done in the past. Stand up like Lucas because there may be people stronger than you in one aspect of your life they are not better than you. Lucas confronts the seniors to protect his friends to protect himself to tell them that he has a place. If he is knocked down he will get right back up, confidence can’t be destroyed because then is when they win. Unlike them I didn’t learn my lesson until I came to university so I feel like it is important to say it.

Lucas: this is not going to be how I live my life in high school.

Riley makes a point that maybe they are trying to teach us something and as Maya puts it, she may have too much faith in people. It is alright to have faith in people but we know when we are being taken advantage of, or bullied or put down. In this new period if you are moving with your friends only together can you face the challenges and remind yourselves how great you are.