Who Is The Person Whom Affected Essay, Research Paper

Everyone is affected by certain events or individuals that greatly change their

life. Many people have influenced me during my life. Three wonderful friends

that have had a special effect on me are Ryan, Alicia and Ana. In the three

years that I have known them well, they have been my best friends, and have

helped to transform me from a lonely middle school loner into a happy senior

with a decent social life. Popular wisdom has it that, “You judge a man by his

friends.” Earlier in my life, that would have been difficult, because I had few

friends other than my cousins. I concentrated mostly on school and TV,

paying little attention to life outside my studies. My high grades made me the

target of torment during elementary school, the name calling: nerd, geek, and

worse, was so bad that I was ostracized by some of the class, and I shielded

myself by further isolation. My Middle School experience was no different. I

was still a loner. All the dances passed by, and I found other, solitary ways to

occupy myself. I rarely took time to hang out with fellow students during

weekends or vacation time, I was too busy watching television and playing

Nintendo. Then came high school, and in Mrs. Jone’s Ancient History class I

sat next to this energetic guy named Ryan, who joked about the no-brained

teenagers working in 7-11’s, made fun of the way our teacher dramatized the

pronunciation of the Huang-Ho and Yangtze Rivers, and satirized the

teacher’s methodology of hand-signals for facts, generalizations, and

cause/effect. Finding common ground in our senses of humor and love of the

TV Simpson’s, we grew acquainted with each other. Later in the year we

teamed up as the defense lawyers in a class debate trial in which Mao

Zedong was charged with crimes against the people of China. To Mrs. Jone’s

dismay, “legal wrangling” caused the debate trial to last two weeks, even

though she had planned for it to take three days, until it was resolved by a

split decision, with the jury voting 6 guilty and 6 innocent. More important

than the result was the experience of friendship and shared learning. We each

had a great deal of fun preparing questions for the witnesses and planning our

cross-examinations, and after the trial we remained good friends. Tenth grade

would be a notable year. Ryan introduced me to Alicia and Ana, our

classmates in English. The four of us had a great time making our first home

movie, based on the allegory Redwall, at Ryan’s house. Our filming day

coincided with a storm, so the outside scenes were hilarious. Plus, when we

jumped up against the side of Ryan’s house, we knocked down some books

off a shelf inside. In the end, we all had a great laugh watching our final

product. In March, Ana invited me to her sweet Fifteenth-birthday party, the

first major social occasion that I had attended in years. I will always

remember the wonderful time we all had dancing and celebrating. Later in the

year, we made another movie for English class, which was more of a satire.

In it we managed to include many of our history teacher Mrs. Lemma’s

infamous quotes by working them into the lines of Basil Stag Hare, a

character from the Redwall novel who often spoke in nonsense. In June Ana

invited Alicia and me to her house for a study party, hoping that we could

learn enough of World History to excel on the mid term finals exam. After

wasting most of the afternoon watching TV, we highlighted the review book,

and we were finally ready for the big test. Last fall Ana and Alicia convinced

me to go to the Homecoming dance, and I began to realize all the fun that life

has to offer. It was only natural that the group of us had an even better time at

our Junior Prom. I must admit that if I had never met them, I would have

missed out on the complete experience of a truly special occasion. On a

Halloween party we all went dressed in costumes, with Ryan dressed as an

outrageous mime and I in the less exotic costume of a carpetbagger. That

night we took a trip through the haunted house; we were blinded by the

strobe light in the basement, and scared out of our wits when a ‘ghost’

jumped out of a fake coffin and started up a chain saw. Now, as the first to

have a driver’s license, I’ve become the chauffeur to dances, movies, and

restaurants. As one might guess, Al, Ray and Ana have all exerted a positive

influence on me. Now that I’m a senior and no longer live near my best

friends, not even in the same country, I have a more sense of self-confidence

that ignited from these three marvelous persons. This self-confidence has

helped me create a new home in Brazil. So you can certainly see that not only

have these persons most influenced me, but left foot prints on my soul