Adapting: Middle School and Life Essay

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Adapting to Survive Growing up in two different communities has had a huge impact in my life. I moved from Bell Gardens to Norwalk when I was 9 years old. Although I was fairly young when I moved, I could still remember every detail about the childhood that I had in Bell Gardens. In the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry, there is a society that is portrayed as the ideal utopia. The citizens of this community choose to live in a very systematic and repetitive fashion and dismiss any behaviors that contradict their way of doing things. They are willfully blind to any form of independent action or thought and believe that a community should work together, as a whole, through the sacrifice of individualism. Ones outward perspective can easily evolve through many changes such as the relocation of ones home or other life changing or distressing experiences. Moving from one city to another has definitely evolved mine. When I first learned that I was going to move, millions of thoughts occurred to me. I was constantly thinking of the friends that I would be losing as well as the lifestyle change that I would be experiencing. I reminisced of all the times that I had spent with the neighborhood children and I was depressed by the thought of leaving that all behind. Being a young kid, I never really paid attention to anything else except for the life that I knew in Bell Gardens. My previous surrounding was the only thing that was important to me. I was obviously aware that there was life outside of my community, but since I was never fond of change, I never thought of a life outside of it. Moving to Norwalk is definitely a milestone in my life because as I reflect upon it now, it really has broadened my view of the world. It was a wake up call that let me know that ones everyday life can change without a moments notice much like in the novel The Giver where a character undergoes a life changing experience. In the novel the character named Jonas, who is the protagonist of the novel, undergoes a dramatic change in his life as he was chosen to be the Receiver of memory of his community. Being chosen to be the Receiver of memory is a great honor. He is notified that because he was the receiver, he was able to do things that are considered to be illegal for the ordinary citizens. He was able to question and articulate his thought any way he pleased disregarding any rule against self-expression. Because of this, Jonas becomes the one in his community to change things forever. As he takes advantage of his accommodations, he reaches a moment of enlightenment of how life should really be. I was able to relate as my eyes were widened by my moving experience. Moving was not always a moment of positive reflection. In Bell Gardens, I was supposed to enter middle school but the Norwalk-La Mirada district does not consider 5th grade as middle school. This meant that I had to do an additional year of elementary which was very distressing to me because I did not want to be seen as a little kid in elementary school, but as a growing boy that is eventually making his way on to high school. This would be like if a child from Jonas’ community were stripped of his privilege of riding a bicycle after he became of age. Getting used to the way things were seemed impossible. I can accurately recall the first months attending school in Norwalk and I was very nervous and shy. I was unaware of the social norms and I would always stay quiet and observe the other children so that I could mimic the behavior that was acceptable. This was difficult for me because I was always really talkative. At the same time I did not want to risk saying or doing something that wasn’t “cool” so I had to keep my mouth shut. I had finally become aware of the constant use of profanity between the children my age and I used that to my advantage. At first this was foreign to me because the schools that I attended previously were really strict but it seemed like the expectations in
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