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Freshman Year
When I entered Freshman Year, I was eager to find some new friendships and discover some entirely different personalities, perhaps some that coincided with mine. Yet, as the year went on, I realized that everyone is nearly the same and enjoys talking about the same things: drama and boyfriends. I have connected this with the part of "A Worn Path" when Phoenix explains that she has traveled this route so many times it has become draining to walk along. -
Sophomore Year
As I continually struggled to find who my real friends were, Sophomore Year came about and I was introduced to quite a different set of people than I was used to hanging around. I considered the possibility that maybe I was meant to find these people and change my personality to fit theirs. However, by the end of that year I realized that I was only being peer pressured into changing and ultimately decided that my time for quality friends had yet to come. -
Sophomore Year (cont.)
I chose to connect this part of my story with the animals that Phoenix fears she will come across. I relate those new friends I made to the animals, as they were just another fork in the road I had to get passed in order to continue towards my goal. -
Junior Year
As I reached my third year of high school, finding the crowd I belonged to was still a task I had yet to complete. My old middle-school friendships that I was terrified to let go of became petty friendships that I soon wished to rid myself of. By the middle of Junior Year, I had come to fully realize that my old friendships were unhealthy for me and I reached the crazy conclusion that I really had no friends at all. -
Junior Year (cont.)
I connected this part of my journey to when Phoenix fell into the ditch because it can symbolize hitting rock bottom, both for Phoenix literally and for me figuratively. The only way I could have recovered was to have someone there to help pick me back up, just like the white man helped Phoenix. -
Junior Year Pt. 2
As the new year rolled around, I realized that I needed to stop trying to make friends and just let them come to me. My plan seemed to work, because a few girls that I had met Freshman Year but never really got to know began to come back into my life, and it turns out that they had been struggling with the exact same problems that I had. -
Junior Year Pt. 2 (cont.)
I connected this part of my story to when the white man helped Phoenix out of the ditch because like the white man, my new friends picked me up out of my struggles and showed me that there are people out there just like me that I can relate to. -
Current Day
I now feel that I have some life-long friends, and I believe that God put the unhealthy friendships in my life to lead me to the great, meaningful ones. Just as Phoenix got her grandson a gift to cheer him up, I feel that God has gifted me with great friendships that will last a life time.
