If I had to describe my sophomore year of high school, I would say that it was the best year of high school I’ve had so far. I had a lot of my friends in my classes and some of them were fun by themselves. It wasn’t as stressful as freshman year had been and I made a lot of friends. I didn’t care at the time whether they were forever or temporary; I was just happy to have friends!

I still remember the Forensics and Debate tournaments (I was part of the team.) I remember the homecoming dance with some of my best friends (who cares if we didn’t have dates? We ruled the dance floor!) I remember my cooking class where sometimes we made things that were so good, I had no room for lunch; I remember it all.

I had ran down the stairs to the front of the school and practically body slammed the door out of my way when summer came. I can still hear some of the guys whooping with joy in my head. I was going to miss my friends, but most of them I could see during the summer. I was going to miss a couple of my teachers like my Forensics teacher, who had a great sense of humor, but right then, all I was focused on was summer vacation.

It was a pretty great summer. I can still remember the sleepovers, making s’mores, camp outs, the smell of smoke the time my friends and I set our microwave popcorn on fire, (by accident of course,) and the laughs we have about it now. However, it was finally time to go back to school and I was in the phase.

What phase you ask? I like to call it the summer’s-over-and-I-can’t-accept-it phase.

Summer happens to be my favorite season and I go through this phase every year. The first part of it is when I’m in denial, which lasts for up to a week. On the first day, I sat through my classes and thought to myself: Summer’s not over. Summer’s not over. Summer’s over- NO!

The second part of my phase was when I finally accepted that summer truly was over and cried about it once I went to bed.

When I was finally out of the phase, I began to take a good look at my classes. Some were fun, some were hard, a couple were boring, but they all had one thing in common.

None of my friends were there.

Sure I had a couple people I knew, but I didn’t know them very well and they were more like acquaintances at that time. As time went by, I really began to miss people. Whenever I went to my History class, I would think about my best guy friend running past me down the hallway. We had always had races to see who could get there first (I can’t remember who won more of them.)

I had Ceramics class in the place of Forensics that year and I can honestly say, I’m no Ceramist. I really missed joking around with my fellow classmates the year before about numerous things, like when we referenced movies or cartoons, when we danced while reciting our speeches (our teacher told us it would help us remember them) when I had created a fad where we called the copy room “Narnia,” even one time when we all had a “serious” discussion about whether or not to write “Debate: The Musical.”

I began to get really lonely and at times, even felt like crying in the middle of class. I would pray to God that I would find a friend. Just one was all it took.

I received the answer to my prayer one day at lunch. Ever since the beginning of that year, I had sat alone in the lunch room. I ate in silence, wanting to cry again.

“Hey!”

I looked up. Someone was standing in front of me with a sweet smile. I recognized the girl from my Science class. She was one of the acquaintances I mentioned before. I did my best to smile back.

“Hi.”

“Would you like to come sit at my table?” she asked me.

I beamed and nodded. She took me to her table and introduced me to her friends. Although I was happy to have somewhere to sit, I sat quietly that day, not sure whether or not to trust these girls.

I sat with them that whole week and slowly began to trust them. At one point they asked me to come to their life group on Wednesday night of that week. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to at first, but soon decided I should.

I brought cookies that night in order to make a good impression.
There were a lot of kids there and they not only accepted me, but they loved my cookies as well. The girls who had invited me stayed with me that night so I wouldn’t feel awkward. Eventually, I broke away from my shyness, and laughed, talked and joked with the other kids. That night, when I went home, I knew God had answered my prayers.

I still sit with those girls and I still go to that group every Wednesday. I still see my old friends, but I feel even better now that I have friends I see more often at school. I smile every time I sit at that lunch table, because I know now that I’m no longer alone.