For as long as I can remember, I lived in a small Texas boomtown that has long since greatly shrunk, called Covington. I truly struggled to find people I fit in with. Because of that, I did not have many friends, through 1st to 5th grade, I was excluded and bullied for being an outsider. For a while, I felt I fit in with my football team, but in the 3rd or 4th grade, I fell behind the others in size and strength, so I was excluded again and left the team. I played baseball, softball, and basketball, but a similar story would follow for all of them. Which led me to realize that everyone has a social niche they fit into, and finding that niche is a big step toward finding your clique.

During Covid, my grandfather passed away from COVID-19, and shortly after that, my parents decided to move up to Washington for a better quality of life, education, and mental health support. I was happy to move away from the horrendous place called Texas, and several times in the past we had visited family in Washington, so I had an idea of where we were moving.

I started my 6th-grade year in a new school, and I knew no one. In the first week, I spent my free time at school, figuring out the different social groups and cliques. I quickly learned that I did not quite fit in with any of the meager number of social groups I had managed to identify in the previous week. But my outstandingly stubborn self still tried to become friends with some people that I kind of fit in with, and I managed to make a couple of friends, but I still felt like an outsider.

By pure, uncharacteristic luck in October, I decided to start a conversation with a person named River. As we talked, I learned that we both liked DnD and various indie productions, which quickly led to us being friends, and I eventually realised that I had found the social niche that I fit in with near perfectly, and to state that I was ecstatic to find the social niche that I fit in with would be an understatement. In the following couple of days alone, I made more friends that I felt that I belonged with than I had made in my entire life in Texas. As the days passed, I realised that River was the key stone member of our friend group, and everyone else in the friend group gravitated towards River after one or two conversations with them, in similarity to me. In 8th grade, River and I started our own D&D club because the founder of the club we were in during 7th grade moved away.

Even to this day, my friend group is still together and growing. To sum it all up, even if you feel like an outsider now, you will eventually find your social niche and click. Just give it time because it is impossible for you to be the only one like you.

© Malcolm. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.