My name is Sam. I am sixteen years old. I'll start this tale when I first came to India, in 2003. My mom held my hand as I came out of the plane on that fateful day. My first impression of India was hot. After the cool of America, this was sweltering.
My mom always told me," Sam, you have got to be the best at whatever you do." And I followed this religiously for eight whole years. I devoted these years to working hard and got results really quickly. While every one else played and joked around, I stayed at home and slogged my ass off.
Then everything changed....
It was int the eigth grade. I was sitting in the first row, as always. Mrs Boswell started to assign us places. I was put in last bench, because all the troublesome jocks were in the front row where she could keep an eye on them.
Then she assigned places to the girls. All the studious girls were in front to mend their ways. Yeah right, they couldn't do anything to change. They will always be stuck where they are right now, at the bottom.
The list continued, until, "Michelle Bernstein with Sam Lawrence."
Everyone started whispering and talking at once. I mean like all at once. It was so loud that Mrs Boswell had to actually bang the desk to make everyone silent again.
I didn't realize how much those words would change my life.
