Biography Of James Dials 's Life

Growing up, school was not a major factor in my life. I come from a hard-working, middle-class military family. My mother, a Filipino immigrant, was a homemaker. My father was a 21-year United States Marine veteran. They were my first impression of what I thought my future would be. Being the youngest of four children, I was expected to fall in line behind my siblings when it came to education. I was never pushed to excel in my studies, so I did just enough to get by. As I watched friends escape the grasp of a military town and ascend to their respective colleges, I was left wondering what was next for me. I attended my local community college for a brief period of time. I treated college no different than high school. I

My transition into high school was as easy as taking a breath. I had always found school quiet easy and I never had to put much effort into getting promising grades. Before high school I had my whole life figured out, or at least I thought I did. I had planned that I would attend a law school or major in English. After a while of being in high school I started to realize many things. My parents did not have the financial stability to send me to a law school, I was not as smart as all the other kids, little by little I began struggling with a negative mentality about myself and my future. I slowly let go of my dream of becoming a lawyer and decided to join the Health Careers Academy. Soon enough, I began to have a deep interest in the medical field but then again I continued to have the same question; how can I afford going to a medical school? I did not know much about college or what it took to get into college. I assumed I just had to have a pretty transcript and that was all it took. My self confidence began to lower as I saw how other students cruised through their high school years so effortlessly. I never wanted to ask for help because I did not want to seem “dumb”. I would bite my tongue and hold in all the unanswered questions I had. My junior year, I was having a very difficult time. I had a tight schedule which consisted of almost all AP or honors courses. I slowly began to give up because I did not believe that I could do it. I let my grades slip failing almost

When I was in third grade, my grades began to drop for no reason. My parents had thought that I just needed to get my eyes checked out. I later found out I have Dyslexia and ADHD. I went to a private elementary school where everyone got straight A’s. I was the complete opposite; I got

My mom is very strict about education. When I was in Haiti , I used to go to a private school, a Catholic school. That school had a big effect on me. The way I talk to people, the way I dress, the way I see things in life, and I was always the student who didn 't talk in class, respect my teachers and my classmates. Being in a religious school made me the daughter a parent could ever dream of. That 's what my mom told me. Even though my mom only graduated from high school, she make sure that I go to school every day. I don 't remember missing one day at school, not even once, except when it 's raining which is something we don 't decide. I remember one day I had a fever and a stomach ache, my mother didn 't bother asking me if I was okay going to school. She just told me: " A fever can 't kill

Growing up in San Francisco was not easy. My life has been a up hill battle. I’vealways been a free spirited person. Always loved sometimes loved the wrong people. I grew up in San Francisco. Most people think of San Francisco as this wonderful free love place. Well it’s not this wonderful free love place. Fillmore is what my neighborhood was called. This Fillmore place was a very dark violent place. Many don’t make it out. Either you die young, or you go out on drugs. I always wanted more out of life. I always felt that if I could escape this dark unkind place I would be a better person. Sometimes as a child I would dream of living in a real family setting. You know a father that lived with my mother and I. “A real family not a dysfunctional one”. School has always been a outlet for me. I could go to school and learn, learn, learn. I’ve always been

Growing up, I’d always been expected to do well in school. Which isn’t out of the ordinary, every parent wants their child to be successful and have a beneficial career. So, since good grades were what my parents expected that’s what I got. All throughout elementary, I strived to do my absolute best in every subject. At my sixth grade graduation I was awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Achievement, in my junior high years I did well as well. My eighth-grade year I achieved my goal of obtaining a 4.0 G.p.a. The first year of high school was nerve-racking but I still managed to keep my grades up. However, Sophomore year was definitely a bump in the road for me. In all my ten years of being in school (including head start and kindergarten)

My mom is very strict about education. When I was in Haiti , I used to go to a private school, a Catholic school. That school had a big effect on me. The way I talk to people, the way I dress, the way I see things in life, and I was always the student who didn 't talk in class, respect my teachers and my classmates. Being in a religious school made me the daughter a parent could ever dream of. That 's what my mom told me. Even though my mom only graduated from high school, she makes sure that I go to school every day. I don 't remember missing one day at school, not even once, except when it 's raining which is something we don 't decide. I remember one day I had a fever and a stomach ache, my mother didn 't bother asking me if I was okay going to school. She just told me: " A fever can 't

That’s when I knew I had to take control of my life. I began looking for GED programs and came across alternative high schools. I applied to Innovation Diploma Plus High School and went to the school for an interview. The adviser, Mr. Polanco told me I didn’t have the minimum requirements which were 10 credits and 1 regent exam. He told me I had to return to my school and pass my classes and reapply. At this point I felt discouraged, the teachers in my school weren’t willing to help me because of the impression they had of me. A few days later my mom received a call saying I was accepted into Innovation Diploma Plus and I knew this was the clean slate and I can become the person I knew I could be. Mr. Polanco told me that he convinced the principle of the school to take a chance on me although I was missing 1-course credit. I worked super hard to make sure I wasn’t another Spanish girl on the welfare line with a baby and no education in a state that offers education for free. In Innovation Diploma Plus, I received 35 credits in a year and a half. I was attending regular classes, classes after school, I even switched my lunch period for another

About four years ago, I was just starting my first year of high school. During my previous tenure in middle school, I was basically an average student with multiple C’s and barely passing classes. So when I entered high school, I was not that enthusiastic about it and I continued the trend of not really caring about my grades in the 9th grade. As I became more aware of the opportunities I could get by receiving good grades, I began to actually care more about school and tried to get good grades. I began to do something that I never did before,

At Dodge City High School I was in many activities such as The Pride of Southwest Kansas, varsity tennis, drill team, enriched learning, and many other honors classes, I was even the president of the decoration committee my junior year. After my sophomore year I added another egg to my basket, and was hired at my first job. With my first job I helped my mom by getting my own phone, paying for the bill, and buying my own items and necessities. But with all these activities and work, I started to get tired, but more than anything, I got lazy, and careless. I started to spend more time procrastinating and doing things last minute. I started showing up late to class which led to not even showing up at all. At this point in my life, everything was going down hill. I got dismissed from drill team, I went from first chair in the band, to dead last, and my grades reflected my attendance. I pushed everything to the side and blamed it on “senioritis”. I thought I was doing everything right and I did what I wanted, but it wasn't until I got called down to the office for a meeting, that I realized that I was putting to shame every effort and all the time my mom spent on raising

It was the beginning of my freshman year of high school and everything was smooth until I began my advanced placement class which began out kind of easy ,but then as the work piled on and got harder I just didn't wanna do it anymore. All my other classes I was doing fine getting a's and b`s, which for me I thought was perfectly fine. I made the cheerleading team , I had a cute boyfriend and I had lots of friends. I was happy- well at least I thought I was happy. Around December I began losing a lot of weight from doing cheer and my grades started falling dramatically. My mom decided to take me out of cheer because I lost about 20 pounds so quickly and I didn't have passing grades. I remember getting so mad at her, but looking back it

My formal educational experiences start’s with Field School, Field School is elementary school in Elmhurst Illinois. I went there from first grade to fifth grade. Elementary school is where I began my early years of education. Began interest’s in reading and whiting. First learned the nature of my learning disabilities. I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and speech impediment. Which made learning hard from the start. Sandburg Jr. High School is where I went for my sixth grade education. I was only at Sandburg for one year, for the year that I was there I started going down the wrong path, started getting into trouble and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Midway into my sixth grade year I moved to the other side of Elmhurst. So for seventh grade I went to Churchville Jr. High School. During my time there I continued to have a hard time with my studies. I also almost got expelled

They decided that it was for the best of me to go to summer school at a place called Landmark School. Landmark is a school that specializes in children like me who are having trouble in school with learning disabilities, but still have and above average IQ. I truly did not want to go to summer school and I hated my parents everyday for the first week of school. I then found something actually enjoyed, the after school activity; woodworking and small engines. This caught my interest because I love working with my hands, and all the tools they used were new and interesting. While I was distracted from saturday school with my activity I actually started to learn new things that I definitely applied into my next school year at RVCS. Little did I actually know that this was the start of a great new chapter in my

The transition from middle school to high school was difficult for me. I’d gone to very a progressive middle school where the students basically got to choose their own curriculum. I’d never had grades or a standard structure of any kind to measure my academic performance. Saint Mary’s, my high school, is college prep so the teachers move quickly, I am graded on everything, and expectations in general are much higher. For all of ninth grade I felt like I had been tossed into the deep end without knowing how to swim, and my grades reflected that mentality. Summer before tenth grade, I knew I couldn’t continue performing so poorly, so I began to study and to try and get a jump start on the next year’s curriculum. When school started I put much

Subsequently, my mother saw my pain and decided to relocate back to Atlanta. I became acquainted with some children from the wrong side of the tracks and my life began to spiral out of control. I would stay out late on school nights and often missed school because I thought hanging out with my new found family was more important. Soon my grades began to plummet. I saw no way to bring up my grades and decided to drop out of high school in the twelfth grade.