MY Best Friend

            
             I can recall at time when I have had a preconception of an individual based on limited interaction, lack of knowledge, and stereotypes portrayed by the media. Upon meeting my current best friend, Camille, who is of Jamaican descent, I really thought that she would embody negative representations of Jamaicans. If I had not taken the time to find out more about her personality and her background, I would probably still have the views of many other people. I've learned that you should never judge a book by its cover, especially if the people who draft the cover are not the authors. .
             The year was 1998 during my high school years. The first day of my freshman year at White Plains High School, I had taken a break from my math class and decided to hang outside with my friends. We all decided to meet by the emergency exit at about 11 o"clock so that we could run to the mall. We had about 45 minutes to get there to eat and make it back to the school. We made it back just as the last bell was ringing and the door was locked. If we got caught out there we could have gotten in serious trouble but this girl named Camille opened the door for us. This caught us by surprise because we always thought of her as this rude troublemaker.
             Being as though Camille was from Jamaica, we thought she would have a gripe against black girls from the United States. Later on that day, Camille and I sat down and had a conversation about her travel to America and how she felt about fitting in. One of the first things she mentioned was how people always would always ask her, "where's the trees at?"(Trees meaning marijuana) This bothered her because she never smoked weed a day in her life. Many people of Jamaican descent experience weed as a part of their social and in some cases spiritual practices. But Camille and her family shun the smoking of weed because the toll it takes on personal health. She also shared with me the fact that every time she engaged in conversation with her peers about her career goals, they would always joke about having 13 jobs.