The Richardsons

Video #28

"There is a phrase: one man's trash is another man's treasure. Or, how everybody has a different reaction to a situation. It makes life diverse and really shows a true person's character and reveals their true intentions. And I'm not just talking about in a book, I mean the real world, with real people. You'll never believe what really happens in high school."

The week of Thanksgiving is also known as "test after test after test week". Where you'll have at least 2 tests per day. Most of them fall on Wednesday, hooray.

I have study partners for English, Math, History, and Science. We all decided to meet up on different days to study.

My history test is first up. On Thursday, I go over a girl named Alexandra's house. Alexandra only wants to study with me to make sure that she's doing the right thing.

"So, in 1889, there were 2 presidents chosen?"

I nodded.

I go over to other's to study, because I don't want people seeing my house and suddenly begging me to cheat on their test or let them live in my place.

Alexandra Santopolous is cocky, conceited, and is only in the top classes because she wants to be the top of the class. She lives in a nice house, middle class family. Father is a workaholic, works for Broïsé (oh hohoho).

"It's a kind of thing that you wouldn't understand, I want to be known as the number 1. The one that gets to make a speech! I mean, look at me! I'm qualified to get into Princeton!"

While some people flaunt their smarts because they have money to peruse an education, some work hard and put honest work in to their grades to get scholarships.

For math on Friday, there is this shy kid named Samuel. He was reluctant on inviting me, but he decided to anyways.

He is not as fortunate as Alexandra.

His mother is sick, he lives in a one bedroom small house, and he works 2 jobs to pay the bills.

"Come on in,"

We sat in the small living room and he seemed shy.

"Well, I want to say something. There are people that are able to show off what they have and people who are naturally smart. People that blow your mind away with their confidence. But, some people aren't like that at all. Me, for example. I live in a small place, I only have a week's worth of clothes, and I have a sick parent. I'm working overtime in life to support myself and my mother. And, I want to become a neurosurgeon to help fix my mother's condition. But, where do I get all of the money? That's why I'm studying overtime to get into the best classes and to even get scholarships to get into world class colleges. You must agree, Kat. Life isn't easy for either of us, you know? To be honest, I'm happy that I know somebody that can relate to the same situation that I can."

Oh, you don't know the truth, Sam.

Some will treat you with extra effort and might come off as "annoying" or a "try hard". On Saturday, I went to this girl's house named Carley to study Science.

I just rang the doorbell and Carley opened it with a smile.

"Hi!"

She would constantly talk.

"So, where would you like to study? The basement? Outside? I might be a little chilly? My room? I can bring you up a chair."

We ended up studying in her room. It had not been 2 minutes when she had to get up again.

Would you like anything to drink?" She asked.

I told her I was fine and 3 minutes later, she comes with a Japanese Tea Platter.

"No need to be shy about this. You're always welcome to enjoy yourself at my place!"

I appreciate the free hospitality, but it's been 10 minutes and we still haven't studied.

Carley would constantly get up just as the studying was getting good, which led me to end up reviewing the terms all again.

"Sorry that I keep on getting up and doing things, I have ADHD."

I kind of felt bad, but these days, you never know who is lying about mental illness.

Carley is sweet and all, but she can be a little bit too much at times. She's like that one friend that you're friends with because you didn't want them to feel bad because you didn't want to be friends with them.

Finally, on Sunday, I went over Landon's house to work on book annotations. On top of writing a book, our English teacher wants us to read and annotate "War and Peace". Of course, everybody partnered up. I got stuck with Landon Wooden, the quiet kid in class. Not like it's a bad thing.

But, we never really spoke at his house at all. Only to agree on which annotations to do.

"Page 462, paragraph 6, sentences 6-8. They hold important details. Annotate them."

He was straight to the point, but he sounded like a robot. One that never showed emotions that much, I could tell that the reason he doesn't speak that much is because he's under a constant amount of stress, I can relate to that.

"What about page 450, the page with the long paragraph?" I suggested.

Landon looked through the book.

"Oh yeah, that one is good too."

He annotated random parts of half the page. I watched carefully.

I'm normally not one to judge you by where you live or your street. But, each partner lives on a different street on a different side of town.

Let me write it down for you.

Alexandra S. - Oxford Street (West)
Decent houses, well known Street
Samuel L. - Windward Lane (East)
Considerably the poorest road in New Bedford
Carley H. - Serena Terrence (East)
Middle class road, not too shabby
Landon W. - Alexander Drive (West)
Possibly upper middle class house and family