By Celena Aponte, 16, Cleveland HS

“Sitting in health class amongst a group of gum-chewing freshmen, I met a bewildered new student, trying to get through her first school day in America.
Eresha Weolanarachohi is from Sri Lanka, though she spent the equivalent of her high school years studying in England at an international school, with the help of a scholarship. Sri Lanka is a country located off the southeastern coast of India.
The other students were not very welcoming.
“You have a boyfriend?” a girl asked, pulling off her headphones.
“No, I had no time, I was always studying,” she said.
“Where is this?” the girl asked, obviously shocked.
“England.”
“No boyfriend? F—- England, man,” she said, putting her headphones back on, and smacking her gum.
Meanwhile another classmate stopped making musical farting noises long enough to ask her how old she is.
“Nineteen.”
“Nineteen? Damn, you’re old.”
“You’re still in high school?” another girl asked.
“Yes, so what?” she said.
“She’s English, that’s why,” said the first girl, finding the conversation more interesting than her Walkman.
The boy continued with his farting noises. His friend called out, “Hey dude, she’s old enough to be your mother’s friend.”
The new student turned to me, and said, “I don’t care if I’m 19 nor do I care if I have a boyfriend. Does everyone have a boyfriend here?”
Though I changed my class schedule, I was able to catch up with Eresha a month later to see how she was adjusting to American high school.
Apparently, quite well. “No one has said anything terribly mean that I know of. If people say things, I don’t really pay attention or care. I’m here to study and achieve,” she said.
“I am happy to be here,” she told me, explaining that her family had to come because of political problems in Sri Lanka. “I feel very free in America and have many opportunities because the American government operates in democracy. In Sri Lanka, a democracy doesn’t have the same freedoms and the government does what it wants to people. Here, though, there are laws.”
Eresha aspires to medical school. “I think I’ll have a better future here. America is a free country and it’s easier to achieve your goals. It’s difficult in Sri Lanka to get what we want because of limited opportunities, especially in universities.””