influence :: essays papers

influenceSmall-minded administrators and imprimatur figures handle to speak in clichs. All my life I heard the comparable trite line You can tell a lot some a person by the friends they keep. The black sheep of the honors program, I hung out with the alleged(prenominal) losers. During my freshman year, not a day went by when a instructor or family member did not deride my close-set(prenominal) friends and warn me that by hanging out with bad seeds I would fall into a downward(prenominal) spiral, never graduate college, and have a miserable life. They thought that they had me estimate out. One day, while my ninth grade mathematics teacher, Mr. Pedersen, was reviewing some math concepts with me, my friend Mariam ran by the classroom, stuck her head in the doorway, annunciateed out Hi Yassee, and consequently ran away. Mr. Pedersen looked at me coldly and said with a scowl How can you call yourself an Honors student? A real honors student doesnt associate with flock ex changeable that I call fored to ask him how he could call himself a teacher after all, a real teacher is supposed to want to help everyone. Instead, I sat silent, stunned by his ignorance and cruelty. He valued me to drop my childhood friends simply because they didnt place the same vastness on schoolwork that I do. If he had thought before speaking, he would have realized that people like him, rather than people like my friends, are better able to turn good students into poor ones by discouraging them with ridiculous comments. I would never slight Mariam. One of my closest friends in freshman year, she was also a below average, non-college bound student. many an(prenominal) of the adults in my life, especially my parents and teachers, would look at those closest to me Mariam, Alisa, Zena, Lianne, and Marvin, and ask how I could call these low-life losers my friends. But such questions show a lack of brain of the nature of friendship. Friendship is unconditional and uncritical , based only on interchangeable respect and the ability to enjoy each other s company. These authority figures never saw the way one of us could do something outrageous, and the catch ones breath of us would joke about it for days. We could have fun doing absolutely nought at all - because the company we provided each other with was enough.