After interviewing Justin and Jacob, I thought about what I should focus on in the next interview. I already talked about how we struggled both socially and academically when we moved to different high schools.
Therefore, I was wondering whom I should interview and what I should ask more. I soon realized that there is a person who moved very occasionally even more than I did. My friend Cindy who is currently a senior in Newport, moved to Newport when she was a junior. She lived in many different places due to her dad's job as a diplomat. Thus, I wanted to hear how she felt about moving to a different high school. Because Cindy lives in Seattle, I again used Skype to interview her. "Sup bro," Cindy appeared with a spoon and her favorite Baskin Robbins ice cream. "Nothing much. Ready for interview?" I asked. "Yeah start it," Cindy replied while scooping her ice cream. "So how many times have you moved so far?"
"I moved many times, but recently, as a high school student, I lived in 3 different places Egypt, Korea, and America," Cindy answered. "3 different high schools in 3 different countries huh? How do you generally think about moving?" "Well, moving has been like a part of my life. Because my dad is a diplomat in Korea, our family never really had a stable life. We always migrated and I just got used to it, thinking of it as a casual thing that happens every 2 years." I wondered how I would have felt if I were Cindy. To Cindy, moving has been a very common thing. Therefore, I expected to have some different answers from Cindy. " Oh okay. I have interviewed two of my friends so far, and we all agreed that moving into a new high school socially and academically challenged us. How do you think about this? Did you feel you were changed?" "I mean yeah of course I struggled, because every school has a different environment and different people. Do you remember how quiet I was in the beginning of my junior year when I just moved into Newport?" Cindy answered. " Oh really? I thought you were pretty active compared to me and my other friends. Like you seemed to be confident."
"It is probably because I knew how to adjust myself into a new school. I have been doing this since when I was in elementary school. One thing that I learned every time I moved was that losing confidence makes you lose yourself."
At that moment, I was so surprised to hear a conclusion that Justin and I concluded during my second interview. We both agreed that showing one's true self is the most important lesson that we had learned from moving. Not losing confidence in oneself, that is the most important thing, and Cindy knew it already.
"Hey actually I personally wasn't confident of myself when I first moved into Newport. I just felt if I show my loud and active personality, other people would judge me. I wanted to give a good impression to the people I didn't know," I explained myself.
"That happened to me during middle school. However, I soon realized that without liking myself, no one would appreciate me. Like think about it Jay, how would people like you and would want to be friends with you if you don't know whether you like yourself or not."
" Well I don't mean that I didn't like myself. I just felt..." as I continued Cindy interrupted.
"Basically hiding yourself is the fact that you don't appreciate yourself. Why would you think others would judge you wrongly if you acted as who you are? That just proved that you lacked self confidence of yourself, meaning that you didn't appreciate yourself."
I couldn't really say anything to this statement. Jacob, Justin, and I were all hesitant to open up ourselves, because we didn't appreciate ourselves. If I judged myself as a great one, then I would have not hid my true nature to the others.
"Wow hey you are one year younger than me, but you look more like an adult . How did you figure out this by yourself already?" I asked her.
"I told you I moved a lot and I had that moment too. Today I am not afraid of moving again even though I am going to graduate in Newport. Indeed because of moving, I learned an important lesson about appreciating myself, and I have so many diverse friends."
"Hey actually I don't need to ask you any more questions, because you already told me the great conclusion. Not forgetting about appreciating yourself...That is a great conclusion to these interviews. No matter how difficult the situation is if you appreciate yourself, you would never feel sad," I concluded. Everything became clear, and I was so happy about the fact that I found something that I had not realized before by doing these interviews.
"Yeah you just realized that? I should be in college, because I knew this prior to you."
"Haha alright thank you so much Cindy. I know you have your homework to finish. Oh and are you ready to receive college acceptances soon?" I asked her with a smile.
"Of course bro! I tried my best," Cindy showed me a smile with an empty ice cream cup.