An Outsider's View

Have any of you out there read Of Mice and Men? It's a really good book. You there should read it.

And there's this character, Crooks. He's black and has a crooked spine. He lives in his own room, away from the buckers and skinners. Nobody really visits him, and he seems like a kind of cranky guy because of it. He seems lonely.

I feel his pain. So I went to this camp for playing the viola once, yes? And there were three violas. I was two years younger than the youngest person there. And I got third chair. The oldest girl was first chair, the second oldest was second chair. Coincidence? I think not.

I felt left out, and the camp was no fun because of it. Nobody really talked to me because it was a camp for high schoolers, and I was in seventh grade. I spent the lunch hours playing ping-pong with myself. (Tip: Don't play ping-pong with yourself. It's kind of difficult.) I felt like a minority, an outsider, just like Crooks did. And it was terrible, because I was there for skill. Like, I'm young so I stink at playing viola, and Crooks is black so you can't like him. What is that nonsense? It's just wrong, in my opinion.

It's frustrating how people are biased. I won't mention names, but a certain Mr. Conductor-Dude was biased toward age. Everybody else who got their chairs were in their chair because of their skill. I wasn't. Even the first chair viola agreed I should've been first stand.

I'm not trying to be an arrogant nubhead here, and saying I'm the best at viola. I'm not. But it was frustrating being an outsider. Even though he's a fictional character, I'm sure people have been treated just like Crooks was. So think about how your actions are affecting people. People should be treated equally. Every man is created equal.

And equal is different from the same.