Rozella P
LA Upward Bound
June 28

Living in Tacoma was one of the roughest times I have ever encountered. Being only in the 5th grade, I never paid much attention to the differenc between white and black because that was all there was in my school at the time. But I did, however, feel uncomfortable toward other kinds of race, until I went to Nathan Hale. Except for Jodi, we did everything together; even when I started a new school that was mostly white with about a hand full of blacks, we did everything together. Me and some of the black girls didn't get along because they tried to act white or in other words, something they were not. Most of my friends were white, only because they didn't try to act different when they were not around me.

When I went to middle school, it was a whole different story. The majority of the kids were African American. I seemed to fit in just fine, not because of my color but because I knew how to be myself and wouldn't change my ways for anybody. I no longer hung around white kids, but a few remained within my clique. My experience at Jason Lee Middle School was fun, but it wasn't very balanced; each race hung around others from their own race. Blacks didn't have conversations with another race unless they were popular.

When I moved to Seattle in the summer of my freshman year, the Parent Information Center gave me two schools to pick from: Roosevelt and Nathan Hale. I didn't go to school for a week because I wanted to go to Garfield, I knew about it because it was only a few blocks away whereas Nathan, what ever you call it, was a mystery to me. When I finally did go to Nathen Hale I didn't have any conversation with anyone and didn't understand why every minority was mixed up and kickin' it (being around each other).

At Hale, I was surprised to see other races around each other. At first I segregated myself away from everyone because I didn't know if this was a virus or what; it was too unusual. After about four months I found myself being friends with other races because I learned they were just like me. Then and there I realized "a person should never be judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character."