Growing up, my older sister always told me that going to high school allowed me to have more fun. But on the night before the first day, going to sleep was difficult. I was up all night thinking about how the day would go. What if my friends aren’t in any of my classes? What if I get made fun of? What will people think of when they first see me?

The next morning, as I started walking towards the gate of the school I had butterflies in my stomach. There were a lot of students. As I looked around, I started to notice the familiar (熟悉的) faces of my friends who went to primary school with me. For some reason, I would get very nervous when someone new got close to me.

The one thing I was most nervous about was walking in late to one of my classes. Guess what? That was exactly what happened. Going to the first period was simple because luckily, other students were helping us find our classes. Not to mention, I ended up having that class with a couple of friends.

As I made my way down the halls to get to my second-period class, we had about five minutes to get to our classes. Finally, I ended up getting lost and coming to class ten minutes after the bell had rung, which resulted in the class looking at me when I walked in. I felt self-conscious. Everyone had already taken their seats so I rushed to sit down as well. However, I had to sit with someone new. It took me a while to begin talking to him but once I did, things became easier because I was able to ask for help when needed.

In high school I was going to be meeting new people in unfamiliar places, getting used to a new environment, and receiving more responsibilities. But I’m still looking forward to it.

Natalie Hampton, a high-school junior in California, still has memories of being bullied(欺负) in middle school. “Besides horrible attacks, the worst thing was being treated as rubbish and having to eat lunch alone every day,” she said.

After switching schools in the grade, Natalie found a supportive new friend group, but she never forgot how it felt to be the rubbish. “Whenever I saw someone eating alone, I would ask that person to join our table, because I knew exactly how he/she felt,” she said. Natalie’s experiences inspired her to create a new app called Sit with Us.

The concept is simple: the app allows students to reach out to others and let them know they are welcome to join them at their tables in the school cafeteria. Kids can look at the list of “open lunches” in the app and know that they have an open invitation to join with no chance of rejection.

Natalie said that teachers and parents can be a part of the solution by helping coordinate(协调) Sit With Us programs and providing topic discussions during lunch to bring people together, but she believes that students are the most important participants. “My high school values community service and I think that is why it is generally a kind and welcoming place,” she said. “In terms of fighting against bullying, I believe that student-led plans are much more effective than a meeting where adults tell kids not to bully.”

“I hope that the message of Sit with Us spreads, so that, at a minimum, kids remember to reach out to other kids with kindness and acceptance,” said Natalie. “Eventually, I hope public concern about the lonely kids at school can be aroused(唤起).”

I was in the seventh grade, and we had moved to New Jersey in November. By then, everyone already had had their own friends, and no one wanted to talk to a new girl. To make things worse, they put me in ''Section L''. I found out later that everyone called Section L ''Loserville''. It was sort of an open secret that it was the section for troublemakers and not-so-smart kids. When I found out, I wanted to scream. I had always been a good student and had amazing friends, and now everyone thought I was a loser!

I did text my friends in Illinois almost every night, especially my best friend, Ana. At first my friends wanted to hear all about it. But then some stopped texting back once I said something about how miserable I was. One night when I was texting with Ana, I complained about another friend who had just done that. Anas texts came really fast for the next few minutes and they surprised me. She said that she was tired of hearing about how bad everything was in New Jersey, too. She said she did not want to hurt my feelings but that I needed to stop feeling so sorry for myself all the time, and I had to try to make things better.

The next day, I thought a lot about what Ana had said. She was right!

I wish I could say that everything changed overnight after that, but it didn't, I was still stuck in ''Loserville'', and some people were still mean (苛刻) to me, even though I tried to just stay out of their way.

But what did change was me — I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and did something about making friends. I signed up to make sets for the school play. I met a lot of new people there, and suddenly I had friends to say hi to in the halls!

I still miss Illinois sometimes, but life in New Jersey isn't so hard anymore. Even though I couldn't change my situation, I could change my attitude — and that made all the difference.