AGK Trap

In middle school and high school, there is always the group of girls that all other girls want to be friends with. I was part of the group of girls that others wanted to befriend. Since the seventh grade till our junior year in high school, Ann, Geni, and I were known as AGK (Ann, Geni and Kellie). We were the girls that other girls either loved or hated. It took one girl to cry in front of me to make me realize the wickedness of all the demeaning things we would do to girls who were not us. We were truly “the mean girls”.

Geni and I have been best friends since kindergarten; Ann joined us in the sixth grade. As the years progressed, the three of us became close friends. We would go to school together, come home from school together, do our homework together, and even go to outside school activities together. People started calling us AGK and it stuck.

Some girls would try to be our friends but we would not let them. We would be nice at first, but once they were out of sight our mouths ran as if they were running a marathon. We usually had a lot to say and felt no shame in saying it. For example, when other girls would try to befriend “our boys”, we would make fun of them and tease them directly to their face which was how we liked it. Not only were we known to always be together but we were notorious for telling the truth and nothing but the truth, even if it was the wrong time and place to say it. Notifying another girl that her skirt was folded from the back was kind for one of us to say. However, being who we were we three made sure that she was not the only one who was alerted. Everyone got the memo due to how we told her which was from one corner of the cafeteria to the other. We continuously chanted her name and acknowledged her skirt mishap.

During our junior year, all three of us went on a church retreat with our youth group. Our friend of more than five years, Katrina-Elise, came too. Usually Katrina-Elise would be with Abigail, her best friend, but for some reason Abigail was unable to attend this retreat. AGK played their normal routine and shunned Katrina-Elise out of our circle. We would take pleasure seeing her alone struggling to find someone to talk to. I knew this because we would joke around about it lying in our beds before lights out.

During the last day of retreat Katrina-Elise came up to me with tears running down her face. I asked her what was wrong and began to comfort her. She threw her hands up stopping the potential hug I had to offer her. She looked straight into my eyes, stopped crying, vigorously wiped away her tears, cleared her throat and yelled, “You disgust me! Ann, Geni, and you all disgust me! You three smile when I frown, laugh when I cry, and jump around while I sit alone in the corner. You three pretend to be nice to me but I’m not stupid. I actually thought you were my friend since kinder, but I was pathetic to believe that for one second! I’m never falling into the AGK trap, ever again!” She then walked away with her head up, confident, and brave.

I thought to myself, “If Ann Geni and I were to ever break up, who would be there for me? Would I one day be a victim under Ann and Geni?” I realized how many friendships I destroyed in order to keep one.

Since then I have tried to not focus on my title of being the K in AGK but, simple just Kellie. I am sorry for at the pain and misery I have caused to all the girls I have hurt. I could have stopped; I did not have to follow Ann and Geni. Just because they did not want to make friends did not mean that I was not allowed to. It breaks my heart till this day knowing that I could have, we could have, been friends with a lot of girls instead of limiting it to only us three. It is always good to have a group of friends to fall back onto but, it is also good to broaden the horizon for friendships. There is a variety of people out there and each of them is a potential friend. Finally being exposed to this real world concept, I too will not fall into the AGK trap.

Textbook Bargaining

The transition from high school to college may be easy for some but difficult for others. In my case it was difficult. Beside the fact that I was struggling financially, my main problem within the first week of college was adjusting to the new college ways that I needed to make into habits. I previously attended a high school that provided textbooks for its students. Not being used to purchasing my own textbooks, I did not anticipate spending time looking for the right books, stressing over the money spent on the books, or even the irritability that came with waiting for the books to arrive.

In college it is on the student to have their books in hand on time. Finding the best price for my books drove me crazy I did not know whether to purchase books online, at the bookstore, or from another student. All I knew was that book hunting was the mission I was on for the first couple of days. So I figured that the best way to find out what worked was to try a different method for different books. I decided to buy my biology, English, and scientific concepts book online. This was smooth sailing, but it took awhile for them to arrive. For my speech and psychology book, I purchased them from other students. My speech book came to me like metal does to a magnet. However, my psychology book took more than one try. The first student I called ended up selling the book a day before I agreed to meet up with her, but the second time went perfect. Being a bargain hunter is not the best thing to be while shopping for textbooks because, time is ticking and the books are needed to be bought as soon as possible.

Textbook shopping is nothing new to a college student. Though I may be new to being a college student I need to become an expert at buying my textbooks. from this experience I've learned that buying books online is easy but time is something I cannot control. So to get a head start is gold, by e-mailing my instructor before class starts asking for the title of the book needed for the course. Another thing I learned was to have cash on hand to at least place a down payment on the book if I am buying it from another student. Next semester and other to come will hopefully not be as stressful as this one because, I have already experienced the events of textbook bargaining.