The boys

By Jairus P

August 2018, the beginning of a new chapter for many people, mostly for students and teachers. Many students from different schools went to Bridges Academy; some of them knew each other, some didn’t. Some had similar interests which brought them closer. This is the dawn of the creation of a group that grew stronger as the years went by.

We all met through mutuals and had interest in basketball, and that’s what brought us closer to one another.

“We all really met each other through mutuals, the first one who I met was Andrew, and then from Andrew I met Jon, Omar, Adrian, and then after that, I met everyone else…I didn’t talk to every single person but I knew that we were all friends and we would all hangout and play basketball and whatnot during middle school.”

Most of us are fascinated by playing basketball and through this, we all got closer and got to know each other more. Many of us had different experiences during our time in middle school. For some, it is fun, and some, it is not. We still managed and enjoyed our time in middle school by hanging out and playing basketball daily.

As time progressed, we are now in high school. New people came along and our group expanded. We are in our third year of high school and the time will go by very quickly for us. From time to time, some of us reflect on our experience in middle school compared to high school.

“The experience I had about with my friends, they were fun. I wish I could relive those experiences because it was just that the point of life that for me I had a big friend group which I always wanted, and it was just something that I really liked having and it something that I wanted for a long time.”

From our time being together as friends and as a group, we have done many things together…from the most fun and outrageous stuff. As we grow older, we reminisce about the “old days” and think of what if we do it again or relieve it again.

“All going out together and eating was pretty fun. I’d like that again.”

As we grow older and are becoming more aware of things, it is normal for us to have some time for ourselves and time for other things. Some of us moved to different schools but thankfully we stay connected and go out of our way to find time to hangout with one another. We may not hang out together as a group anymore but this will not stop us from having fun together.

“So I think the major difference is just that, there’s a lot of people that aren’t here anymore, a lot of people ended up moving, so they don’t even go to the school anymore and then it’s just the people that do go here kind of just gone separate ways which isn’t a bad thing, it's normal. We still hangout together sometimes but it’s just now with high school, I feel as if everyone is so busy, it's kinda hard to find times where we're able to meet up together as a group.”

Life isn’t fair and it applies to many people. We encounter obstacles on our path and yes, we can pass through them from time to time, but occasionally we need help and guidance to get us through the problem that we are facing. These people are the people that you trust and can depend on whenever you need help, and a great foundation for trust is being honest.

“I value honesty in all sorts of relationship. It extends out to friendships too.”

Through this, we know who we can trust and seek out help to, thanks to their time, commitment and overall being a good person, going out of their way to help me or the boys about problems.

“I believe you can trust someone when you don’t have to question things…if you really do trust someone, then there shouldn’t be any doubt in your mind.”

We all have known each other for a while now and our relationship with one another just grows stronger as the time goes by and we value these times with each other because once it’s done, it will turn into a memory. We all came from different schools, different lives and backgrounds, and yet we still find our way back to each other and create wonderful memories and reminisce about them as we get older.