He decided to go to college in the Northeast, Columbia University. Bobby knew that he would be far away from home. He had never even been past North Carolina, let alone New York. The fall of 1966 began his first year at Columbia University, but more importantly New York City. It was more culture shock than anything else that made him really homesick. He was not used to all the people a city had, particularly this one, and the various amounts of ethnic groups that lived in New York City. Bobby's worst problem, because of the thought his father had set into him, was the thought of having to live in the same city as black people, and even worst go to school with them as well. He was never faced with this problem before. He was scared and annoyed that he had to deal with this kind of people and so he treated them in an unjust and offensive manner. In all of his classes he had minority students. He felt very uncomfortable and in one class especially. In this class, one black young man always sat next to him. After a while he became less defensive because the young man never spoke to him or even did anything that would make Bobby not like him. He began to realize that as long as you do not communicate with them in any way, they would not harm you. This was a major step for Bobby.Time went on and Bobby was becoming very comfortable in this big city he now called home. One day after class, without Bobby expecting it, this young man who always sat next to him finally introduced himself as Jermaine. Bobby did not know what to say. He thought to himself, "Should I ignore him? Should I tell him my real name, because maybe he might look for me? Should I be rude to him so that he would know never to bother me again?" He took a bold step and told the young man his name also. Then he picked up his books and left immediately. That night he could not sleep. Bobby began to think for the first time that maybe these people are not as ba...
