Classmate I am Thankful For: Jennifer Hernandez

Jennifer and I have been friends since we both first came to Whitney Young. We were both in 7th grade and neither of us knew too many people. Both of us were on bus...um actually I can't remember which bus it was, but we were on the same bus. Very quickly we became friends along with the other kids on the bus, and they were some of the first kids I knew that weren't from the other schools I went to. Going into Whitney I actually probably knew more kids than anyone else. I went to 3 different grade schools, Bell, Decatur and Edison, and around 20-25 kids from these schools were going to Whitney. But I didn't have very many classes with them, almost none in fact. This made my situation kind of awkward, because I didn't know most of the kids in my classes. But Jennifer and her friends made a nice bridge for me to make new friends. Some of my best memories and most vivid experiences from 7th grade are of that bus and all the great times we had there. One of the most clear memories I have is the time half our bus got in trouble. Like serious trouble though, as in suspension. See our bus was normal length, but it was some kind of handicapped bus so the back half had no seats. The bus didn't have enough seats for all of us, so we sat in the back. Actually we sat there even if there were enough seats, we thought we were really cool. A lot of us used to play this game where we would taunt the cars behind us. The activities were not always the most appropriate suffice to say. Eventually someone called Mr. Swanson, the then director of the Academic Center, and half of us got suspended and Saturday schools. I didn't very actively participate but it was a lot of fun to watch and talk to all the other kids. We did prank calls, yelled at kids outside with our whole bodies hanging out of windows, ate ice cream, and a bunch of other dumb stuff that really helped me move into Whitney more comfortably. Jennifer was someone that I could talk to and be friends with no matter what. I am really thankful for all the fun times we shared, they were something I looked forward to all day in 7th grade.