ENG4U Assignment: Convocation Address Thesis: There’ll always be a time when you feel abandoned and lonely, but it is during this time that you get a chance to reflect and improve on your situation, and this will pave your way to success. Admit it. There’ll always be a time when you feel lonely and abandoned. Sometimes, it may really be your fault; you offended someone without knowing it, and suddenly, you find people ignoring and avoiding you. Sometimes, your “friends” think you are either not cool or smart enough to stay in the group, and you find yourself
out of the group the next day. I remember back in grade 3, I was the loner in the class. I just transferred to a new school, and my classmates, who had already formed cliques, viewed me as a weird newbie- yes, I did all sorts of weird things in elementary school. Furthermore, I avoided talking as much as I could, so it’s pretty hard for anyone to socialize with me at all. Once, I did try speaking, but I became so nervous that I read everything wrong, and everyone in class was even more convinced that they should stay ...
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out of the group the next day. I remember back in grade 3, I was the loner in the class. I just transferred to a new school, and my classmates, who had already formed cliques, viewed me as a weird newbie- yes, I did all sorts of weird things in elementary school. Furthermore, I avoided talking as much as I could, so it’s pretty hard for anyone to socialize with me at all. Once, I did try speaking, but I became so nervous that I read everything wrong, and everyone in class was even more convinced that they should stay away from me. That year was the saddest year in my life. Whenever there’s group work, the teacher would have to assign me to a group, as no groups would accept me without some sort of authority pressuring them. During lunch, I would look at other kids playing catch in the playground, and feel sorry for myself as I sat curled up in one corner of the classroom. However, this loneliness made me more focused on my schoolwork. Since I had nothing to do during lunch anyways, I studied, and miraculously understood a lot of concepts I didn’t in class. In a year, I was upgraded from a normal class to an express class. Life at school became much better after that. Time passed by, and soon, I found myself sitting in a grade 9 class in Toronto, Canada. The western way of life was new to me. Everyone was speaking English in a weird accent I didn’t understand, and I was doing pretty badly in French and Canadian geography. The first few months of Grade 9 were brutal; I had no friends, I had bad grades, and I didn’t speak a lot due to my accent. Once again in my life, I became a loner. I tried to make some friends, but I was always nervous among crowds, so I avoided them as much as I could. During this time, I focused on some subjects that I wasn’t very good at, and I also spent a lot of time thinking on how I should approach other people and at least have a few friends that I could depend on for group work. It wasn’t easy at first, but after a while, my grades started rising, and my classmates came to realize that I’m a nice person. Looking back, I am very thankful of those moments when I can slow down and think of the next step. Without those “thinking moments”, I might never have discovered how to socialize, and my grades would never have improved. There’ll always be a time when you are lonely. But remember, being lonely gives you the courage and time to reflect and improve on your situation, and this will pave your way to success. As Dag Hammarskjold once said, “Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for”.
