Personal Narrative: My First Day At Salem High School

The first day of swim practice, freshman year. The first day of walking onto a pool deck filled with seventy girls and a scary coach. The first day of my high school experience. The first day of an unbreakable friendship. I slid into the frigid water of the Salem High School pool with two other girls that day. One was chatty, friendly, funny; the other: quieter, more reserved. As the season went on, my teammates and I got to know each other, and our lane of three became a fun-filled group of five friends. There was one girl, though, that I connected with more than the rest, the one from whom I would become inseparable over the next three years. Alaina and I, we joked, were practically the same person. We both loved reading, both played

There had been tensions, no doubt, but we put on brave faces and resolved to plow through anything that came our way; we were best friends, after all. Unfortunately, this feeling did not last long. One day shortly after the start of the new school year, Alaina and I were planning to eat lunch together, a treat we didn’t normally get, as our respective classes took different lunch periods. She was going to join me and the group of girls I usually ate with in Salem, and that’s when things really started to fall

I knew I couldn’t go on like this, constantly arguing with and being belittled by the one I had called my other half for the past three years. That night, I sat down with my mom and, per her suggestion, began to pour my feelings into the abyss of a blank computer document. “I need space,” I had titled it, and when I had finally finished documenting my feelings in a way that was clear and strong but not mean, I typed Alaina’s email address into the “share” link. My finger wavered over the cursor; I paused. “I can’t do it,” I whimpered into my mom’s shoulder as she enveloped me into a hug the way only a mother can. “She’s just going to get so much more mad. I’m scared.” I hit send. When I sent Alaina that document, I showed myself how strong I really was. I could stand up for myself, would stand up for myself, needed to stand up for myself, if I was going to be happy. I needed to be able to make my own decisions without doubt whispered in my ear. I needed to be able to have fun and to make my happiness a priority, as Alaina had so often in the past reminded me, and I realized then, that I needed to do that without her, if she wasn’t going to support my efforts on that front. I needed to please myself for once, instead of bending over backwards to please her. I had enjoyed time I had spent with Alaina, that was true, but recently, I’d only been agreeing to see her for fear of fury at refusal.