Life across the U.S.

Living in five different states in 17 years teaches how to adapt to different cultures

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Bri Alleyn, Reporter

In my 17 years of life, I had had the pleasure of living in five different states. In my time of living in these states, I have attended high school in three of these states. Every school that I have attended had lovely teachers, strong sports teams, and a lot of homework. Even though there are many similarities, there are also many differences as well.

Small lake in my backyard where I learned to skip rocks.

Hawaii 

I went to school in Hawaii for three years. I stayed there until my sophomore year. My school in Hawaii was by far the most different from any of the other schools I attended. 

Our lockers were outdoors, and every classroom left their doors open. To get to every classroom, you would have to go outside to find the next room. Most students walked or rode bikes to school. Certain schools also had paddle boarding or sailing as a sport. The school lunches were mostly Filipino food, and it was delicious. Majority of the students were either from the Philippines or Vietnam, so I was able to learn a lot about other cultures.

Just like every other school, they have to deal with COVID right now. Oahu is such a small island, and the virus could spread even faster than it does here. Most schools are all virtual. Hopefully soon, Hawaii can get back to their fun luaus. 

Washington D.C.

I moved to D.C. my sophomore year. My school was 30 minutes away in Northern Virginia. This school was very different from the lifestyle I was used to in Hawaii. There were no water sports just basketball, volleyball, soccer and golf. 

The school offered more than one language, and I was not used to that. It was similar to Hawaii in the way that almost half of the students were foreign exchange students from either Korea, Vietnam, Japan, or the Philippines. I was able to connect with students very easily since I knew of their culture. I also became a tutor in English for all of the exchange students. It was also a lot different because there was different history in Virginia than in Hawaii. For field trips we would go to George Washington’s house or we would visit the White House.

 Although there were many fun trips, they came to an end because of COVID. This school year many schools in Virginia and in D.C. are all virtual because of how crowded the city is. 

A shared goal

Every school I have attended handled situations differently, but every school is having to put their normal lives on hold because of COVID. The main similarity in all of these schools is that student safety is the number one priority.