PK

People ask me, “So your crew was called PK? What does PK stand for?”
This is what I tell them:
PK isn’t a yes or no question. You can’t listen to PK. It isn’t an ice cream flavor or a Christmas present. It can’t get stuck to the bottom of your shoe. PK is a philosophy; a way of life. I guess at its basic level it is merely an association, but the idea of PK is far greater than a simple group of friends. Let me start at the beginning...
Most people find it very difficult to move or switch schools. It’s tough to create new bonds and friendships from scratch. When I was 14, I moved into a new house and enrolled in a new school. Having to create new relationships wasn’t easy. The first year was the toughest. For the first three months I was an outsider. It felt as though I was incapable of making new friends, like something was wrong with me. I became depressed and questioned many areas of my life. At that point, one of the lowest in my life, I came upon an answer. I decided that I didn’t want to be depressed anymore. That’s when I developed PK. At that point, PK was a personal goal. I was going to move my way up the social ladder, make my way to the top.
Three years later, PK had evolved. Now it was more complex than the personal goal I set it out to be. It had transformed into a group of teenagers with a title. PK had become a type of humor and a care-free attitude. It was now a football game and a Friday night. At the parties we would chant, “PK!” People talked about us and whispered in the hallways. PK represented something I couldn’t grasp at the time. I thought it was just my crew and what we did on the weekends. It turned out to be something far more important to me.
Soon time had passed, as it always does, and I moved again. I found myself in the same place I was just five years before. I had to start over, create new relationships, and find new friends. Although I felt the depression of starting all over sink in all around me, I had something I could hold on to. I had PK, and it was my childhood. I had the memories of what had happened and how it changed me. Now I look to the future with confidence. I can set out a new goal, a new PK. So, what is PK you ask? Well it’s not an ice cream flavor, a fire truck, or the Sunday paper; PK is a way of life.