personal narrative: Being an outcast

            I would like to make a confession. I have never told this story to anyone including my mother. I am writing this story right now because it happened 5 years ago and I feel that I got over that hardship. This story is about me being an outcast in Canada when I was in the 4^th grade.

            I went to Canada to learn English for 1 year. In Canada, I stayed at my mother’s friend’s friend’s house. Because that was a “Homestay house”, there were other students, too, and two sons of the owners. There were four other students, three girls and one boy. They seemed really nice at first, but as time went on, they made my life hell.

            The first few months were okay. I mad many friends at the new school and became familiar with the teachers. Other students who were at the house were good to me, and the owners were really kind. However, something happened that started all this mess.

            Since I was a child, I loved stickers, so I brought a bunch of them with me to Canada. I gave some to other students and played with them. However, one day, some of my stickers went missing. I did not notice that for one or two months because I had so many. After a few months, I realized one of the girls was giving out stickers to the other girls that seemed familiar. Feeling strange, I went inside the girl’s room and searched. I found the stickers in that room. I told the other girls about this, but strangely, they only blamed me for searching he girl’s room. I still cannot understand why they only blamed me.

            After that happened, I started to become an outcast. When I asked questions, they never answered. During the weekends, they left me out when they went to the playground. They started to pass messages saying bad things about me. Having been so young, I could not do anything. Even one of the sons of the owners who was younger than me joined to make me an outcast. So I was ever more afraid. Going to school became the best time of my life unlike other students. Those days were the most horrible days of my entire life.

            When I came back to Korea, everything went back to normal. However, there was a huge hole in my heart and it took me five years to fill it completely. Still, looking back, I don’t think that experience affected me in a negative way. Because I went through that hardship,  I now have the courage to face anything. Also, I learned a valuable lesson. Never ever bully other people. It really hurts. Because I learned that lesson, I tend to look out for people who are excluded from a group, and never talk about others badly behind their backs. In conclusion, although I was a foolish, naïve girl five years before, because of that one nightmare year, I became the person who I am right now.