justin's story

after class yesterday, i spoke to justin, the monitor of my sophomore 6b class. in class, we had written five sentences about ourselves, mixed them up, and distributed them throughout the class. everyone had to read someone else's and we all guessed who wrote which.

a girl read justin's. "i miss my old junior friends. i wish it was last year. i'm afraid i will never make any new friends." when no one could guess whose it was, justin eventually raised his hand. i was surprised. he seemed well spoken, smart boy, without any glaring social problems.

he approached me after class. he told me that last year he was in the experimental section of the school (think advanced placement). for some reason or another, he failed one of his finals and he was dropped down to a lower class. now a monitor, or head student, he was bitter about the conduct of the other students in his new class. "they swear, and they don't listen." he is lonely, but feels he can't make friends with people with such low standards. i suggested to him that, perhaps, after getting to know them, they wouldn't be that bad. he did not see that as an option. for him the only option was up.

"studying is the thing that makes me forget. i study and i am not lonely." before entering this school, he was a loner. his classmates in his junior class took him out of his shell, but now he is retreating back. by studying hard, he hopes to ace his exams, and hopefully make it back into the experimental classes, and back to his friends.

not the way i would go about it, but it does shed some light on the human condition in china.