First In the Family

It took a while to recognize that I didn’t have to be that way. The way I was brought up, I was like, “I’m not going to ruin myself to that, I refuse to lower myself to that.” So I will be a geek, I will be a nerd, but I will not be thug, I’m not going to be a drug dealer, I’m not going to be any of that! You can basically call me whatever name you want to. And it took me actually coming out and saying that. It was like, “I just choose not to. Now what? You don’t like me? I don’t care if you like me or not! I’m still going to be here, I’m still breathing, I’m still alive.”
Kids were playing around in a lot of classes, throwing paper balls and whatnot, and the teacher’s just standing there. I was like, “If I’m sitting here and I got my book open, you’re a teacher, you can talk to me, I don’t care what they do. Put them out if you have to; if you’re going to teach, I’m here. I’m taking notes, I’m reading, I’ve done my homework, I’ll pay attention.” I was like, “I’m not going to focus on what other people think of me. I won’t be defined by what they want me to be. I define myself.” –Eric

At the beginning I did very poorly in all my classes, especially in English class. I couldn’t advance from that class. The only class that gave me satisfaction was math, because when I was in China the math levels were pretty advanced, compared to here in the United States. In middle school, they already teach advanced level math. –Naixing

He had his mind set already, “I’m not college material, I don’t want to go to college.” I don’t want to be with somebody that doesn’t want to do something with his life, you know, so I just got away from him. You have to be careful who you talk to. They discourage you, some people. Even though they say they’re your friend, they might be jealous of you. They’re like, “Oh, college is not for you, you got to have a job and get paid so good,” you know.
You really have to think about who you’re going to be friends with, how they’re going to impact your life. I thought about everything, like “I’ll talk to her, because she’s more my type, she’s more quiet, she’s more into school.” Some friends could be good or they could be a negative part of your life. Let’s say you’re not into smoking or something—if your friends smoke, you think it’s cool, so you’re going to do it too. What type of
friends do you want to be seen with? –Aileen

You don’t want to miss high school for the sake of getting into college. If you’re spending your junior and senior year cooped up, bottled up, because you’re so focused on getting into college, you’re going to get into college and say, “What did I do with my life in high school?” You don’t want to regret anything.
It’s a really hard thing for some people to grasp, but you have to live at every moment. As long as you’re not putting yourself in danger, go out and enjoy yourself. You do need to have priorities; you can’t expect to be able to go to every single party that occurs and still hold your grades up. It comes with being able to balance, because living your life to the fullest means that you don’t neglect any part of your life, you know? You can’t lose yourself. You absorb everything and take in what you can, and you create the balance that makes your life
most enjoyable. –Niema

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