High School...

The first day of school was just like any other. Boring, too long, and full of kids screaming about how their summer went and calling out to their friends. I don't know why kids here in Hawaii act as if they are the star of the school or that the world revolves around them, but well, they do.  To be honest though i was surprised that we haven't had a fight at our school yet. We normally have about ten to fifteen fights a week. It's kind of dumb seeing as the fights are pretty much always about the same thing, Gangs. There is so much pride here in the islands. i mean it seems like whichever city you come from you are automatically labeled as a certain kind of person.  All of the white mormons are from Laie.  The stoners are from Hau'ula and Sunset. The surfers are all from Haleiwa and Sunset. The kids from Kahuku are the fighters, and so on and so on.  There is almost a pressure to be the kind of person that your city you live in labels you as...  I don't understand why people have to put others down.  Just because you don't fit in with the rest of the crowd doesn't mean that you need to change who you are to be like them.  School in Hawaii is scary for anyone who is white. If you are a "Haole" you aren't as good as everyone else. You are considered to be "white trash".  I have been called that more times than i can count and pretty soon you just accept it and move on, but that's what bothers me. People shouldn't have to just accept it, or get used to it, or be forced to ignore it.  It just shouldn't happen!  I think that the school system should put up a bigger fight about racism and treating people as your equal no matter what color of skin you have or if you have a physical defect that changes your appearance.  I am a type one diabetic and i have had the hardest time with schools because no one really understands what diabetes is and they just think you are weird and strange just because you are having to test your blood sugar and take shots at school.  When i was diagnosed in elementary school the kids at my school treated me so terribly that i ran home from school everyday at lunch crying to my mom because i didn't have any friends anymore.  One of the boys in my class decided to start calling me "Diabetes Girl" and he told all of my other classmates that if they came anywhere near me that they would catch my disease.  So by the end of the first month of me having diabetes i didn't have a single friend at the school.  My only friend at my school was the nurse.  I would go and sit with her at recess and whenever i could get out of class just so i would have someone to talk to.  Kids at school can be the cruelest people in the world.  The teachers wouldn't even do or say anything they just pretended not to see any of it happening.  the problem with Hawaii being so laid back is that if a white person is being verbally abused everyone else will just turn a blind eye and say they never noticed anything happening.  We all need to be careful about how we label a person and ask ourselves "how would I feel if I was in their shoes?"
                                                      -ButterflyGirl