Personal Narrative: My Hockey Experience

When I first came to Northwood, I felt uncomfortable with the language because it’s not my first. I did not know anyone or know anything really about the school. I knew nothing about the hockey program, academics, friends, coaches, teachers, life style, etc. When I first got into my room, I thought to myself, “ oh my god, this is going to be my room for the whole year…, I don't know anyone and have any idea what anyone is like.. I’m going to be in my room for most of the year”. I felt so out of place being here for the first few days, and really thought I made a mistake coming to Northwood. Personally, I was really worried and concerned about the hockey at first, because not much was mentioned and we didn’t practice for the first two weeks. I was told of how good this program is and how awesome it’s going to be to play here. But at first nothing was said about it. I was relying heavily on making friends and socializing with the boys that would be on my hockey team for this year. But at first, I was really worried about that. I felt alienated from everyone who was at the school previously and from everyone who had friends. It was a feeling i've never felt before. I’ve always been that guy that has a lot of friends and always am the one to have the decision, if I want to be with my friends or if I just want to spend some time for myself. But it was different at the
start here. It was the first time in my life I felt like an outsider and I had so many things going around in my head. I had kind of bad grades from my high school back home in Sweden so when I came her and understood that every single person at this school had really good grades, I was just so confused. I felt like everything was only going down hill because of the new language, I have no friends, I’m I not good enough in school, I was wondering how good my hockey skills be compared to the other guys in the team. So it was actually the first time in my whole life I had a really bad and confusing feeling. But I told myself to step up and just do the best that I can do, and I tried and tried to get friends but I didn’t really get any response from the guys, that was of course because of my english, and I could understand that because who wants to talk to someone that don’t can have a conversation?
As I said, I tried multiple times to get friends, be a role model on the team and after a while a started to talk a lot with my to neighbors Shane and Anders.
The good thing was that it wasn’t just me who tried to have a conversation, they asked me questions all the time and we got really close from that day. Today they are my two best friends at school. It took me a little while to become not alienated at school, but I am so glad I came to The Northwood School. Bunch of really cool friends from all around the world, and it’s going to be a continuous experience that I don't think I will get anywhere
else.