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Paloma Valdez
Professor Duran
English 100
13 October 2014
Sticking Out Like a Sore Thumb
I was accepted and went to an all-girls private school, Ramona Convent Secondary
School. Ramona was a small school; my graduating class consisted of 68 girls. All the teachers
knew the students and we were encouraged to speak our minds and if we had ideas or opinions
we were able to voice them. The teachers and counselors were always there to check up on every
student to make sure they were keeping up. Each class had its own class council and the teachers
were all involved. The Ramona community really encouraged the students to work together and
instilled a real sisterhood. The classes were challenging and it was a heavy workload but the
school provided tutors and counselors for any class and the teachers were always there to go to
for extra help after class. It really felt like Ramona was there to challenge the students but was
setting us up for success for the future. To go to Ramona students had to first take an entrance
exam the year before, score high enough to be considered, then interview with someone on the
staff, once all of that was finished you were told if you had been admitted or not so everyone
there was ready to learn and all basically had the same attitude towards school and learning. So
having to leave this comfortable environment and have to go to school somewhere completely
opposite was going to be a huge transition.
Freshman year at Ramona we were reading novels and plays and reading Shakespeare,
compared to my middle school it was a lot more reading and it was all done on our own. It was a

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lot to take in in a short amount of time and I found myself falling behind. Ramona Convent has a
7th and 8th grade as well so all the students that went there for Junior High knew what to expect
from the teachers and were really prepared for high school. I felt like I was at a disadvantage and
I let myself fall behind. The first semester I got a 69% in the class which meant I was going to
have to take it again during the summer. This was the first time I had ever failed a class or gotten
anything lower than a C in a class so it was something I was not used to and I let it really affect
me negatively. The next semester I went back and learned how the teacher graded and the way
her tests worked and was able to get a B. The first semester helped me learn the way the class
worked and during the second semester I was able to improve, I didnt let the work pile up and I
knew what studying methods would be more effective. I went from being an outsider to being an
insider. But that didnt change the fact that I still had to retake the first semester and get a
passing grade later.
I didnt retake that English class until the summer after junior year so I could get credit
for it. My mom decided that I would have to take the class at a different school because it would
be cheaper. I took that English class at another private high school in the area but this one was an
all-boys high school that opened up their summer school to everyone. I was again an outsider.
Coming from an all-girls school and going into an all-boys school was a big difference, and I
was already older than everyone in the class because a lot of the people there were taking it after
their freshman year. In the class I was taking there were three girls and ten boys who all went
there and were in the same grade. The 3 girls that were there were all from different schools,
another disadvantage. On the first day of class I realized how different this class was compared
to my class at Ramona. For starters there were boys in the classroom and the teacher was male.
On the first day my teacher gave us all the readings we needed and went over what we would

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need to do to succeed in the class. I could tell automatically that this was not going to be an easy
class. The first couple days of class werent challenging but they were definitely different. No
one really talked or discussed the text unless the teacher asked us too, this was the complete
opposite of what I was used to. Thankfully the material was almost identical to what I learned at
Ramona. In the syllabus the teacher told us that his tests were not easy and to get a good grade
we were going to have to study and really apply ourselves, so I did. I went home and I made
flashcards, I kept all my handouts neat in a folder, and made sure I took notes whenever I
thought it was necessary. So I took my first test and I got a 91% and I felt great looking around
the room and seeing I did better than most. I was starting to feel like an insider. After the class
the teacher pulled me aside and asked me how I studied and told me I had got the highest score
in the class. I told the teacher about how I was about to be a senior and was taking the class to
make sure I got credit. The teacher said he noticed that I was working differently than the rest of
the class and that I already knew most of the information he was teaching.
After talking to the teacher I felt like I had to keep up the work and make sure I didnt
slack off. I felt like I could talk to the teacher about anything and ask questions and participate in
discussions, but I wasnt as comfortable with the students as I was with the teacher. I knew that
because a lot of the people in the class were boys that went to that school together it would be
hard to try and become friends with them especially since the only thing we had in common was
we both failed this class and needed to retake it. So with that I figured it would probably e easier
to become friends with the other girls in the class so thats what I did. I would come early and
talk to the girls before class started and I found out that a lot of them were from the all girl
schools in the area, this was something we had in common and it was easy to start a conversation
off of this. I saw that the more I talked to them outside of class the more we would talk in group

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work and class. As the weeks progressed and we got into different topics we began going into
stories and things I hadnt learned. I was starting to be challenged. The teacher noticed I wasnt
doing as good as I was before and I felt more of an insider with the class. I kept on making
flashcards and taking notes and making sure I was on top of my work. By the time the final came
around I felt very prepared, I had reviewed everything and gotten a good grade on the practice
final so I felt ready. After I took the final and all my grades were input I got a 90% in the class.
On the last day the teacher printed out everyones grades as a report card and passed them out.
He congratulated me and told me I worked for the grade I got because getting an A in his class
was a real achievement.
During the days leading up to starting this class I was dreading it and when I noticed that
I was an outsider again I was not excited to be going to school at all but as the class progressed
and I made new friends then I finished the class and passed I was thankful I took it and realized
that I learned a lot, which I would be able to add to what I learned at my usual high school.
Looking back on it this time of being an outsider would help me in later English classes and I
worked against being an outsider and slowly became a part of the class Along with working
against the adversity of being an outsider I could take this knowledge with me to other classes I
take in the future.