The Danger of a Single Story

I had just began middle school and had been placed in classes all with kids from the other schools which fed into the middle school.  I knew no one, and didn't want to be friends with these kids because they seemed weird to me.  Since they had all gone to elementary school together, they had already formed their 'groups' long ago.  I tried to continue being friends with the kids from my elementary school, but never seeing each other, caused us to grow apart from one another.  Later on, I realized that maybe I could at least try to be friends with these people whom I believed were weird.  What had I got to lose?  I began to talk to them and realized that they weren't all as weird as I had previously made them out to be.  After talking to them and hanging out with them, I realized that we had more in common than I thought.  Today, I am still very good friends with these kids, despite the fact that we see each other very rarely.