Common Reading Reaction Paper

It’s common knowledge that there will be many people to be encountered in life that you can relate to in one way or another. I find myself relating to Mishna Wolff from “I’m Down” in many ways. From sharing very similar experiences to having almost identical personality traits, I can without a doubt identify with Mishna. It's inevitable while you're growing up and learning new things in school, you attach yourself to other individuals with similar interests or just share some sort of chemistry. In other words, your "best friend" or "BFF" as others would like to call them. I've always had a best friend, even from an early age (3 years-old to be exact). It just so happens that my first best friend was African-American. I never saw myself different from her, where being white or black had no importance in my mind. There were many times where I'd spend the night at her house, and her family would be over. I'd never felt more out of place. The loud and rowdy conversations, the slang I'd never heard, and just the atmosphere was totally different. This is where I feel I can relate to Mishna, when she began "capping" with the neighborhood kids to fit in. I had always felt the need to change how I spoke and behaved around her family. I had never felt more out of place. In addition to fitting in, Mishna had also joined many different sports to please her father and win back (or an equal amount) of favoritism. I can also identify with this experience as well. All throughout my childhood I had hopped from one sport to another, from taking agonizing ballet classes, swimming, soccer, and finally cheer-leading. At first I started involved myself in them because I wanted to try something new; but it ended up being because I was competing for attention from my younger brother. My brother had been playing baseball since he was six years old. My mother and father, and even some of my extended family would never fail to watch every single one of his games. My