Taiyiana Robinson - Alone No More

 

 

When I walked into the gym at St. Joan of Arc for the first time, all I saw were white people. And I thought to myself, what am I doing here? I went to St. Joan of Arc because I got good grades, and I was an A/B student, and I was a good kid. And when I first got to St. Joan of Arc, I made a couple of friends. They were like the first only white girls in my whole grade. And I was like, why not fit in with them? And we hung out for a while, and it was good. And one day we were talking about shoes. And this one girl, she got really angry. And she was like, "What? You don't know anything. You're such an idiot." She tried to be conniving and make other people not want to talk to me.

 

And she was like, "Why? Why are you here? Why are you following us?" I was so shocked by what she had said because I thought we were friends. And I stopped walking, and I was so dumbfounded by what she had said. So, after that, I kind of stayed to myself. I was a loner, I guess. I really didn't have anyone to talk to or hang out with at lunch. And they had this thing at lunch where you would go up and you would grab the microphone and you would sing Happy Birthday to your friend. And at my birthday, I didn't have anyone to do that. So, my grades started falling. I got an F in math, and I just didn't care. I wasn't doing my homework. I just walked into detention.

 

And there was a time where I had spent like a whole month in detention. And I realized I kind of liked detention because I liked that people had to be around me so I wasn't so alone every day. And after that, I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I was like, I ain't going to be a loner no more. I'm tired of detention. I'm tired of getting F's and all this. And I was like, [cheers and applause] today, I'm going to make a friend. I don't care what I have to do-- I'm going to make a friend today. So, there was this girl, Peyton, I had met at the beginning of the school year. And I was like, okay, maybe I'll make a friend today.

 

And I was sitting on a sidewalk, and I got up and I walked up to her, [audience holler] and I was like, "Hey, Peyton, can I walk with you?" She was like, "Yeah." And I was like, thank God, I finally made a friend. I'm not lonely anymore. This is great. And on the last day of school, the ranked leader of the group, Jessica, who had once told me, "Why are you following us?" I had told her, "So you're never going to see me again," as a joke. And she looked away from me, and she was like, "Thank God." And it really didn't matter at that point, because I had finally got an A in math and I had made a friend and I was going to a new school. So, she really didn't matter at that point. Thank you.