There goes the Neighborhood

Thinking of an example of "There goes the Neighborhood" was quite difficult for me because I've never been in a situation where I've been changed by someone or someone has changed me. But as I continued to think on this subject, I realized that maybe it's not the fact of changing, maybe it's a fact of maturing. So putting that sense to this, I came up with something that applied. That something would be my 5th grade year. My most hated year of life.
In 5th grade, I transferred from my neighborhood school to a Catholic school for academic reasons. I lived right around the corner from my neighborhood school and had been going there since kindergarten. All my friends, everyone that I associated with, went to that school. Literally. You didn't even have to ask what school people went to because we all went to the same school. I guess my moms started to notice that I was too smart or something because my brother and I were transferred. We didn't find out about this until summer leaving us to minimum good-byes. All our friends wer devestated. That summer was all about hanging out with the people we wouldn't see on a daily basis anymore.
The first day of school at my new school was...horrible. I knew no one. Absolutely no one. I was alone and out-casted. Everyone else knew each other because that was their neighborhood school. They all grew up together. I was literally the new kid. I don't really remember that day but I can tell you, I did no talking.
As the year went on, I began to make friends. As usual, I was pretty much cool with everyone but still had that set group of people that I hung out with. We became really close. I could quickly identify the jocks, snobs, and nerds.Yes, there are jocks, snobs and nerds in 5th grade. Crazy, I know. Another thing I came to notice is the maturity in some of the kids. Some of them acted as if they were in highschool. In fact, I can see them having that same personality today. Anyway, being around a majority who act mature all the time can eventually rub off on you.
I learned that the things that I thought were cool were now considered babyish. Finishing 100 multiplication problems in 2 minutes, before everyone, and not having any wrong will make you a nerd. It will also have people all of sudden becoming your friend when they dont have their homework. As a 5th grader, I didn't mind the attention because I wanted to be a cool kid. Profanity was oh so cool but it scared me. I got teased for not cursing.
Overtime, I learned not to care. When you don't care and people know you don't care, they began to want to know more about why you don't care, thus more friends. I didn't notice until later on in my life how much mature I became because of  5th grade. The things that they considered to be cool and for older kids were in fact childish.Their immaturity taught me maturity. I see it as a form of peer pressure. I find myself a strong if not stronger person for not falling in that same ditch. Just imagine. If I thought being smart was nerdy, I wouldn't be here today. I hear profanity all the time now, but if I would've used it as a 5th grader, I would have been seen as a bad kid and maybe even tried to learn the meanings of what I was seeing.
It's kind of a funny story. 5th grade making you stronger.