uncomfortable situation

It was my senior year at Kolbe Cathedral high school, a small catholic school

located in my hometown Bridgeport, CT. Being a senior had a lot of advantages. We were allowed to have different color polo uniform tops and leave school at noon during the second half of the school year. The only rule to leaving the school early was you couldn’t roam the halls you had to leave immediately, go to the cafeteria, or to the library. One afternoon I didn’t have a ride home and neither did my best friends D’atra or Monea. We decided that were going to just wait and waste time in the library.

D’atra decided to go get some reading finished and take a seat at the table. Monea logged on to one of the school’s computer to finish a project. I didn’t have any work to finish so I just took a seat on the couch and took a short nap until my grandmother arrived. We weren’t the only students in the library; there was a group of seniors gathered at a table not doing much. There was a class with a teacher who didn’t care too much about the noise level of his students and other teachers just sitting around grading work.

An hour goes by the library is fairly cleared but me and my friends were still in there. I got the call from my grandmother saying come outside. I told my friends let’s get up and go she’s outside and all of a sudden there’s an announcement over the intercom saying “Will Ayisha Dobson, D’atra Cannon, and Monea White please report to the office.” Now that is running through my mind is what could we have possibly done know. Keep in mind neither I nor my friends get in trouble a lot. We’re honor students who had good grades and we’re on the cheerleading squad. The only problems I ever had were stupid, like getting my cell phone taken away, falling asleep in class, or to pull down my uniform skirt. The assistant principal took things over board all the time. Her name was Mrs. Matson and nobody liked her too much. If you can see where I’m going with this, I’m trying to say we didn’t have too much of a good relationship.

Back to getting called down to the office. As soon as we arrive Mrs. Matson was there standing with a smirk on her face and says “Ladies please step in my office for a second.” We follow, she proceeds “I was told that you ladies were being noisy and disruptive in the library, while teachers were trying to get work down and teach classes you know this is highly unacceptable.” After she said this the looks on our faces just changed and we were completely confused. As I said before my friends were doing work and I was napping quietly on the couch. We told Mrs. Matson exactly what we were doing and she told us we were lying. We were being accused of something we did not do and we couldn’t do anything about it. This was the most awkward and uncomfortable situation I been in all through high school because I feel that this was just so unjust.

Here’s another thing to the situation we were the only people of color out of the students and teachers in the library. The people who were loud in the library where the students who were in the class and the group of seniors who were in the library doing nothing. For a second I felt like we took a trip back in time and in a racism situation, because Mrs. Matson didn’t let us argue our case or tell us how she heard that we was loud. She continued with a punishment that didn’t fit the crime. We had our senior privilege of leaving early taken away until further notice and we had to sit on her bench until further notice. This was so unfair and we couldn’t do anything because we had to leave my grandmother was still waiting for us this whole time.

When I got home I told my mom about what happened and she agreed that this didn’t seem fair. The next day at school we decide we wanted to have another talk with Mrs. Matson to confront her on how we felt about the situation. Again we couldn’t win. I have a bad habit of speaking up a little bit too much and I called her a racist out of anger. It wasn’t the best thing to do but it’s what felt right at the moment. That gained me two more weeks on the bench and after that I didn’t speak to Mrs. Matson and I tried avoiding her as much as possible because every time I saw her after this it felt awkward.

A month later I was called down to Mrs. Matson office again. She said she wanted to speak to me about why do people called others racist. She apologized and I told why I felt that way. After that I let go of the situation but I still never looked at her the same. Frankly I was happy that after graduation I didn’t have to see her again.

Literacy Autobiography Questions

Ayisha Dobson
February 9, 2009
ENG-1000C
1. My first thoughts about words, reading, and writing would have to date back to preschool. I started when I was three and I can remember learning the alphabet, having my teachers and parents read me stories and tracing letters. I learned to speak English and Spanish from my parents and grandparents mostly.
2. An early experience I had with music had to be when Selena died back in 1995. My cousin and I were in love with her last hit “dreaming of you” When read and studied the lyrics over and over. I learned to appreciate music and actually really pay attentions to the words. It touched me in an emotional sense.
3. Spanish, my mother is Dominican which makes me half Dominican. I don’t speak proper or fluently. I understand a lot and can speak well enough to get by. I can write in Spanish a little. I use my Spanish when speaking to my mother’s side of the family. Or when I travel or happen to be only around Spanish speaking people I can translate for others or communicate with the Spanish speaking people. A couple of times at my different workplaces I had to use Spanish to help customers or my co-workers.
4. I don’t really face conflicts with my home language. But I can say I have a bad habit of using internet lingo to express myself. When doing school work sometimes I have to correct myself because I can catch myself writing like I’m talking on the web or talking with friends.
5. I remember learning how to write, read, and spell in my first years of grammar school. In the first grade I remember we had spelling and reading test every single Friday. I was obsessed with perfection and I wouldn’t settle for less than 100. My mom quizzed me every Thursday night before bedtime to make sure I was prepared to get 100 on that test the next day.
6. When I was in the six grade I wrote a poem about 9/11. It started off as just a class assignment but my teacher was really impressed and entered my poem into a local contest. My poem won and my principal made me write it on a big poster board draw it a picture along with it. It was posted in the hallways for everyone to see. I felt accomplished with my writing skills and poetry.
7. Yes I fall in love all the time with lyrics to songs. Mainly to pieces by Alicia Keys, Beyonce, John Legend, India Arie, and the list goes on. One of my all time favorites is Beyonce “flaws and all”.
8. My high school English teacher, Mrs. Bartholomew. She was very stern but she cared to help all of her students whenever we needed help.
9. Diaries, letters, online writing and poetry help me find myself. My writing comes out from the inside. I can express myself more and be true. I can express myself more freely and not hold back and say whatever I have to say and what’s on my mind.
10. To be honest I don’t read on my free time as much as I should. But if I do read a book for leisure it’s because someone told me it was a really good book or I had to read it for an assignment. I know every time I read I learn something new and I expand my vocabulary.
11. I prefer to type on my laptop when writing and I like a lounge setting. I hate complete silence so I like it when a movie is playing or music in the back playing softly. But when I’m writing a letter or poem I usually tend to grab a pen and paper and just start writing.
12. As a writer and learner I think my strengths are my ability to listen well and learn quickly. I can take advice from others to better myself. I like to learn and hear of ways to better my writing. I can contribute my thoughts and what I think can help others in my learning community.