Project 1 Final
Entering high school was a huge change for me. I was no longer in a small environment with familiar faces surrounding me. My high school was gargantuan, and my group of close friends split up throughout different schools. I was alone again in an unfamiliar atmosphere. I did recognize some acquaintances from middle school, and I forced myself to open up and get to know these people. It was hard for me, but a girl named Rosie and a boy named Garett were two classmates of mine who wanted me to join the high school cross country team. I considered it and realized that this was an opportunity to create friends in an environment where everyone is just running.
Running cross-country was something I was not prepared for. It is an intense sport that required endurance and mental determination. There were a lot of people on the team that I did not know, but I had Garett and Rosie, who were both top runners, motivating me during practice. There was a girl there who I had a crush on named Bailey who was on the team, I thought it wasn’t that bad since I could probably get to know her. I found myself to be an average runner, so I felt comfortable training with people on the team who were around the same level I was. I became part of the junior varsity division of our team, and became closer friends with my teammates. A few of my teammates were also my classmates, so I found myself hanging out with them during lunch hours or any free period in class. There was only a hand full of people who I considered to be “friends” with, so I still acted shy around team stretches or team meetings. This also applied in the classroom; I preferred to keep to myself. Overtime, I became more open to my classmates because I could not handle my classes workload on my own. I started creating connections with people I shared classes with, which lead to a network of people, including myself, helping other people out with schoolwork. We had a good system of tackling the high amount of difficult assignments we all had. If I had difficulty with a homework assignment, I can text one of my classmates or a team member who had the same class, and ask for assistance. I always enjoyed texting Bailey and asking her for help.
On a day after practice my friend Rosie recommended me to watch a TV show on Netflix called The Office. This was one of our final practices since we were going into summer break soon, so ill have plenty of free time to check out this show. When starting the first season of the show over the summer I did not think much of it other than it being a sitcom that was very enjoyable to watch. As I progressed through the show, I started to connect with the character Jim Halpert. Jim was just an employee of the paper supply company he worked at, and he just went to work because he had to make money. He did not have any true friends that he would hang out with outside of the office, similar to how I was with my classmates. I would personally only associate with the people around me in my classroom, similarly to how Jim will always prank his neighboring desk mate Dwight Schrute. I would say that Dwight was one of Jim’s closer friends, even though he would always prank him, but every episode the two still tolerates each other. I feel the same way when my friends share the same class as me. I always try to sit close to my friends in class so we can make our time enjoyable, instead of having to sit silently during class. I developed a deeper and personal connection with Jim Halpert when I discovered his attraction towards the office’s receptionist, Pam Beesly. I could see and feel the attraction Jim has towards Pam, and that is what got me hooked onto the show. I wanted to see what Jim would do. Pam in Jim’s life was Bailey in my life. Pam had a fiancé that worked at the office warehouse, which seemed to prevent Jim from expressing his attraction towards Pam. I felt the exact same way. I couldn’t just simply flirt with Bailey because she was in a long-term relationship that prevented me from doing so. I completely connected to the internal conflict Jim was facing. From an audience perspective, I felt that Jim was in love. Jim would always see Pam everyday and he enjoyed sitting where he sat because he had a perfect view of Pam. Jim and I knew that Pam’s fiancé was not the guy for Pam, I felt that Jim would be a far better match.
After watching multiple seasons through the long summer, I was looking for the moment where Pam realizes that Jim is the man for him. I wanted Bailey to see that I was crushing on her, but I did not know how. I depended on Jim to help me approach my conflict, so I continued to see what he did. Finally at one point, Pam realizes that his fiancé was not the man he wanted to be with. Jim earlier confessed his attraction towards her, which made her jump ship about getting married with her fiancé. Jim came together and told Pam how he felt after an office party. I wanted to do the same thing with Bailey, but I did not know if she was happy in her relationship. Near the end of summer break, out of the blue, I get a text from Bailey. It felt very surreal, and it did not feel like it was actually happening. She was asking me for help, but it was not about homework. She was in a rough patch in her relationship, and it seemed like she wanted someone to talk to. Bailey was a close friend of Rosie, so it felt like Bailey felt my same emotions while watching The Office. She realized she wasn’t in the best relationship, but I had not yet confessed my attraction. I did not want to abuse the situation by just telling her how I felt, I also wanted try to help her out and make her feel better. At one point, I built up my courage and told Bailey how I truly felt about her, and she acted surprised, but she replied she has been feeling the same way about me but was afraid to tell me. I completely felt like Jim after his real kiss with Pam, I felt whole. Jim became happier and so did I. The break up was not easy for Bailey, and it was not easy for Pam, but I felt that Jim and pam truly fell in love. I could say I feel the same way about Bailey, I was in love and I still am in love. After graduating high school, I still maintained my relationship with Bailey, just like Jim and Pam throughout the rest of the show.
