Education and Unforgettable Experience

Unforgettable Experience I still remember my first day of school in USA. It’s an unforgettable experience that I will always remember. In 2001 my family and I moved to USA, Arizona from India for better life and education. I was placed at 6th grade elementary school. First day of school for any student can be hard, but even hard for a student who doesn’t speak a word of English. Now, what made my first day of school so unforgettable was how I had to find my class, how I had to introduce myself to my new classmates, and how I tried to understand what the teacher was trying to teach. Reading a map and navigating the class location is quite hard for a 6th grader. Specially, for a student that’s in a new country and a new school like myself. I got off the bus and I have my school map on my hand trying to find where my class is. I am running one way to another holding my heavy backpack. Accidently, I ran into a girl. We both fell hard to the ground. I quickly got up and helped her pick her stuff up and apologized. Funny to say I knew how to say sorry from watching movies, I said sorry to her but I didn’t understand a word she was saying to me and she didn’t seem quite happy. I understood from her facial expressions that she was cursing me and the students around were laughing out loud. Then, a nice lady teacher name Mrs. Smith came and I showed her my class number. Somehow, she understood that I needed help. So she helped me to my class after that embarrassing scene. Now everyone knows first day of school is about the teacher introducing themselves, going over the class rules and every student introducing their self to the class. My teacher name Mrs. McDonalds started with talking about herself and also, about what we were going to do that school year. After her it was the students turn, one by one each student stood up and said their name. They told the class about their interests and favorite things to do. I am nervously looking around trying to figure out what is going on. Then all of the sudden everyone starts staring at me and the teacher is asking me something. I started getting nervous and shy. I only understood the word name the teacher said, so I quickly told her my name. Then I stood quietly while the whole class started to laugh because of the awkward situation. After an embarrassing introduction of me to the class the teacher started to talk about our first assignment. We had to write a narrative essay with at least 500 words. As she explaining and teaching us about how to put together a narrative essay. I am sitting there asking to myself what in the world is going on. What do I do? It was even hard for students with English being their first language. Sitting in class not knowing a word of English was not fun. My classmates didn’t want to work with me because I couldn’t communicate with them. I just couldn’t wait for school to end for the day. It is an unforgettable experience I will always remember and think about. A quote that comes to mind says “you always learn the hardest way” unknown. What I went through that day made things easier for me the next day of school because I was more aware of things. I was more careful on my way to class, tried to learn how to introduce myself and ask the teacher for help with assignments.