To Mr. DiVo's 2024-2025 Eighth Period English Class

Noah was born and raised in a small town in Northern Canada. Growing up Noah noticed that in school, and all over town everyone looked the same as him. He assumed that everyone who looked like him was friendly, and believed that people who did not look alike could not be his friend because they were different.

On Noah's 15th birthday, he got a surprise present that his family would be traveling to New York City. Noah was very excited as he had never traveled outside his small town, seen a skyscraper, or had ever been with more than 50 people at once, let alone thousands of people. 

"We have a big surprise"

"We're going to NYC"

Upon arriving in New York City, Noah was extremely excited to see and do all these new things. What stood out most to Noah was the number of people who looked different from him and his family. He was scared to look at other people, fearing they would be rude to him. 

Below the streets of bustling Manhattan Noah and his family boarded the "J" train. On the subway car, there was no more room where Noah’s parents were sitting so he had to sit next to a young boy in the middle of the car. Noah was scared to talk to him because he looked different from what Noah was used to. But the boy started a conversation, “Hi my name is Gabriel what's your name”? “My name is Noah,” he replied. “Are you from the city?” asked Gabriel. “No I’m from Canada,” said Noah. “That’s very cool, I am from the Bronx, the borough above Manhattan,” replied Gabriel,  After a while, Noah quickly learned that they are more alike than different.  

While Noah and Gabriel were still talking on the train, a younger girl about their age, named Jia, who looked upset, asked if she could sit beside them. She had admitted to them that she missed her stop at Canal Street to get to Chinatown, after talking for a while the group heard the announcement that “the next stop is Marcy Ave.” The Group had now realized that they had missed the last Manhattan stop and were on their way to Brooklyn. Noah looked around for his parents but they were nowhere to be found. Noah was lost and scared but Jia and Gabriel knew what to do. 

When they got off the train at Marcy Avenue everything seemed different; the station was above the roadway, and people were speaking many different languages. Gabriel and Jia both agreed to ask for directions. They split up and Noah went with Gabriel, Gabriel asked a man for directions in a language that Noah had never heard before. He then went over to Jia who was also talking in a language he had never heard before. When the group got back together Noah asked them what they were saying. “I was speaking Mandarin,” said Jia. “I was speaking Spanish,” said Gabriel. Noah had never known there were languages other than English before and was very impressed with how people communicated in different ways. 

“Hola! Como Viajo a Manhattan”.