B.O.E.

Mia Holt

November 11, 2009

Mr. Primrose

B.O.E. Paper

Traveling Education

During my lifetime I transferred to many different schools, each school I went to taught me a little something different. Everyone starts school around four or five years old and comes to find that kindergarten I s a very exciting experience. Personally, I liked kindergarten on some days but still disliked being away from my family. When I finally got used to the idea that going to school wasn't a choice, but a requirement I started my next step in life in making new friends. Almost everyday I would come home to my grandparents and explain to them how I made friends at school, they knew it wasn't going to be hard for me. Later in life I grew older and made different choices, some that involved my friends, which in the end showed how non-responsible I was. My mom wanted me to get away from "negative kids" so she transferred me from Fort Washakie School to West Elementary. This was my very first stage of transferring schools. I moved to Lander when I was in third grade, later I moved from elementary to the junior high in a new building, and finally to another new building called the high school. Throughout my high school career I transferred from Lander to Wyoming Indian High School my freshmen year to Fort Washakie Charter, then came back to Lander Valley High School my sophomore year. These schools I believe helped shape the kind of person I am today and contributes to helping me in the near future when I go to college.

To start off my transferring career, I moved to West Elementary from Fort Washakie School. At this point in time I was in third grade, my teacher was Mrs. Robeson. Mrs. Robeson was really nice and a good teacher. One reason I believe transferring schools helped make me into the person I am today was because it informed me on how to make new friends at new locations. This interaction with new people in new environments is an everyday thing.

Although I moved to an immensely different type of school at a young age, I still managed to make new friends and get used to a totally different school all over again. This time I moved back to a mainly Native American population school. It was hard to attain friends since my usual friends were, "white" and went to a white school. For the majority of my life I only had friends Native Americans call "white," because I was usually the only native person in my classes. Making friends at Wyoming Indian High School was fun and easy because I already knew most of the people there. It was also easy because my cousins' friends were already my friends.

I quickly became a very well known person at Wyoming Indian, but a tragedy occurred which caused me to transfer schools, again. Since I became well acquainted with the friends I already made there, I didn't want to make another batch of friends at a different school. During my school life at Fort Washakie I didn't make many friends because I always worked at home, or I didn't talk with others when I was trying to focus in school. At this point in time I wasn't capable of making friends because I didn't feel like going to a school I didn't like and starting all over. This kind of attitude shaped me into the type of person I am today by knowing when I want to make friends or when I want to stop making friends. Plus, my communication with new people helped me prepare for social interaction in the future.

In the end, I transferred back to Lander Valley High School to reunite with my old friends and finish making more. Transferring from schools, especially from racially different schools, helped shape my life by improving my communication with everyone. It also gave me self confidence to become friends with anyone and everyone. If I had not gone to so many schools in my lifetime, I would not have the type of communication skills or confidence I have today.