This past week, I was involved in a very uncomfortable situation in my English class. What seemed as something I couldn’t bounce back from, turned into a learning experience for me, and hopefully for other students as well.

Students were given an assignment to create a story using only pictures. No words were allowed. My story was about a father taking his son out to go fishing for the first time. During the process of making this, one of my friends (who happened to be a different race than me) was teasing me about my story because it was a “white thing to do”. I didn’t think it was that funny but I chuckled to make sure he knew that I wasn’t offended and I was just playing along.

Later that class, we were participating in a gallery walk. Each student was going from story to story and critiquing it. I happened to be sitting right next to my story while a girl (who happened to be the same race as my friend) was viewing it. After she finished my story, she told me that she didn’t understand it. This is when I made a mistake. Referring to the joke my friend made earlier,  I said, “ I guess you’re not white enough to understand”. She sarcastically said sorry and I sort of smiled back thinking that she understood the joke  and that I was making fun of myself. I didn’t even think the conversation would be a huge deal later.

The next class period, I was in my AP Environmental Science Class, when my English teacher called me down to her room. My initial thought was something went wrong when I submitted my story. Therefore, I rushed down hoping that my project would get full credit. I walked in and it was not what I thought it was. She informed me that after class, the girl and three of her friends all stayed after class because they were so hurt from the comment that I made. I was very surprised. After replaying the conversation in my mind over and over, I completely understand why they were so offended and that I made a terrible mistake. This crushed me. I never intend to hurt anyone and I constantly try to build my character everyday. So the fact that I hurt someone so horribly gave me the urge to apologize. I also needed to explain the meaning of what I was really trying to say but I still felt the need to do something else but I wasn’t sure what it was.

So I went to a counselor for advice.

She told me she that miscommunication like this happens all the time yet a lot of students still have no clue that their words might come off as offensive. Then she encouraged me to write about it so that I can inform other students what I’ve went through and they can learn from my mistakes.

This was a great learning experience for me because I’ve learned that a joke with a close friend could be taken the wrong way by another person. I am not saying that you are not allowed to be funny around your friends, joke around and laugh. However, you do need to be cautious with your words because they can truly impact someone.