Best of Miami Portfolios 2001 - Units.muohio.edu

Reflective Letter—Sarah Mandlehr
A group of girls with perfectly primped hair and flawless make-up turn a rosy pink as the
senior football players stroll down the hallway. Four soccer players kick a flat ball stolen from the
P.E. locker room. The cast of Kizmet Arabian Nights, still in theatrical make-up, laughs and shows
off the new dance moves they just learned in theater class. A cluster of African-American boys
huddle around a garbage can making sounds that are Stomp worthy as two beautiful girls hum and
move to their music. Some kids wear clothes that look like a mixture of my grandpa’s wardrobe
and Salvation Army castoffs. A cluster of girls, with the bronze skin and satin hair of Korea, race
to class and pass two guys “posted up” on their lockers trying to act cool for the cheerleaders.
Next to them are a couple of students struggling to finish a trigonometry problem. Different races,
cultures, ethnic backgrounds, interests, and religions with one thing in common — they are all
smart. This is my high school. This is not me.
I come from a white, Catholic, middle-class, two-parent family. It was too easy for me to
stay in my safe and sheltered world and I knew that to grow as a person I had to choose a new
environment. I chose to sit in classes with brilliant students from all around the world who have
often taught me more than my teachers. Our class discussions have stimulated my mind, and I
haven’t been allowed to just sit back and listen anymore. I began to question things and look for
answers on my own without them being handed to me. My peers have had such different
experiences in life from mine, and they have opened me up to a whole new spectrum of thinking.
It was in writing my first piece, “Family Dinners,” that I realized how different the world was from
my upbringing.
“Family Dinners” is a narrative on my favorite family tradition, a tradition that I found not
everyone had the luxury of experiencing. Until I was a freshman in high school, I was of the firm
belief that all families sat down together every night around six-thirty for dinner. All of my
Catholic grade school friends followed this pattern, so why not the rest of the world? I can still
hear in my head the discussion held in my freshman English class with Mr. Peacock when I was
first exposed to the harsh realities of many kids’ home lives. Stories of deceased parents, poverty,
abuse and neglect horrified me as these teenagers, just like myself, opened up their world for
everyone to hear. I didn’t say a word that day. I was stunned that so many of these brilliant
students endured such hardships. These students taught me more about the world than I will ever
learn from a textbook. In realizing how lucky I was to enjoy this traditional family dinner, I
decided to put it on paper so I could reflect on it whenever I was feeling greedy and remember what
I have that many others aren’t as fortunate to experience.
While sitting in my AP Government and Politics class, I found myself struggling to keep up
because of my own inhibitions. Toward the end of the year it was somewhat intimidating to
participate in discussions with students who had already been accepted to Harvard, Yale, Stanford,
MIT, and Princeton. I questioned my worthiness to speak out and defend my point of view on
topics such as gun control, homosexuality, abortion, and one of our favorites, George W. Bush. I
wanted to prove my intelligence more and more with every topic that was brought up, but
acceptance was important to me and I was afraid that I would be shot down by one of the “Ivies.”
An assignment was given to write a persuasive essay on whether or not we thought the Constitution
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