Graduation Speech : My Family

On February 11th, 2016 I attended the Houston Independent School District’s (HISD) school board meeting. I received a first-hand experience of how educational decisions are made and I also witnessed all the intricacies of the process. An article entitled Understanding Your School Board states that “school boards are entrusted by the public to translate the needs of students into policies, plans, and goals that will be supported by the community” (www.tasb.org). In other words, the board and its members are responsible for making and enforcing essential decisions for the school district. They are ultimately a strong determining factor for their students’ academic success.

I was a very shy kid. Making friends wasn’t my cup of tea when I was younger. Based on this you can imagine how nervous I was when we moved. Joseph Campbell wrote in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, “It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world.” I was preparing to start school again in August when I decided it would be smart to begin associating with kids my age in the area; so, I began spending time with my cousin Lief. After spending some time with Lief, he introduced me to some of his friends and taught me to how to appreciate

Canton, Georgia was the city where I was raised from the time I was seven years old. The quiet neighborhood was where most of my friendships were developed. The majority of my friends rarely left Canton. We attended the same elementary, middle and high schools and played on the same sports teams. My upbringing is what most would consider a normal, American childhood. During the summer before my sophomore year in high school, we were given the opportunity to move to the city of Chicago for one year due to my father’s job which required relocation. That August we moved to Lincoln Park, a neighborhood in the city. Moving to Chicago was a new opportunity to live in a metropolitan city. Since I never lived outside of the suburbs, I was not sure what to expect. Jones College Prep, a highly

June 14th, 2014, was a memorable day filled with joyous smiles, caps and gowns, and the reaching of a major milestone. Occurring over a year ago, my high school graduation took place on that day, and because of my family, it is a very special day in my life.

Some people have asked to read the commencement address I delivered this morning to the 2013 graduates of Butler University. So here it is.

I am “that” person because I have always been very involved in my school community. I am in the orchestra and band, I am a member of Best Buddies, and I am a member of my student council. Within these groups, I have been the president of the orchestra for 3 years, I was the shadow president and social media chair for Best Buddies, I was the secretary of my junior class, and I am the secretary of the student senate. I have also been a member of the Unified volleyball team, Unified Cheerleading team, and swim team.

When I started at North I thought, Okay, I’m going to try and make friends on my own. I’m going to go up to people and be friends with them. I was so excited, because I was so ready to make friends and a new home. At the moment, I never realized how wrong I was. I tried making friends, but the people there push you away if you are not a part of their “clique”(There were so many of them, too). But alas, that did not stop me. I was determined; nothing was going to stop me from making at least one friend--and I did, I made two: a junior and sophomore. They were new girls, too, who made this school more bearable and had the same problem as me: making friends. Summer came and (you guessed it) “We’re moving to Urbana,

When I was eight years old, I moved from Mineola, Texas, to Gretna, Nebraska. I went from having twenty-six acres of land, a close community, and oodles of friends, to having a rental house where I couldn’t dig holes in the backyard and went to a huge school where I barely knew everyone in my grade. This was a huge adjustment for me. After the first two to three weeks of the school year, I finally made a best friend, whom I would continue to be best friends with until I moved again ten months later, and would then fall

Going to the twenty fifth annual rivercrest high school class of twenty nineteen reunion, excited and nerves. I’m excited to catch-up with everyone and see what they have made of themselves. Ready to talk to my old school friends and even see a few of my old teachers.

Growing up in a school where my classmates remained the same from Pre-K to 8th grade, I became accustomed to the people I was with every day. I had my own group of close friends as the years went by, and this prevented me from acquiring the skill of making new friends. When I went to high school, everything changed. I now did not have to walk in two straight lines to every class, worry if my name tag was not on, but most of all, I now had to make new friends.

I’m an only child that has moved a decent amount in her lifetime. I was born in a small city near the Polish-Ukrainian border called Przemysl. After a few years, my family moved to Krakow, and I later spent a while with my grandmother in her village, Narol. In the middle of kindergarten, I moved from Poland to Northbrook, Illinois, and attended school there for two years. I later moved to Chicago Ridge, and just last year in August, I moved to Hickory Hills. Last year was my first year at Stagg, and I enjoyed it a great deal. For my freshman year I attended Richards. Moving after just becoming familiarized with Richards put me out of my comfort zone sophomore year and I had to talk to a lot of people to try to make friends. For this reason,

I would like to let you know that a Parent Summit will be held on 05/13. It is A conference for members of Bilingual Parent Advisory Councils and parents of English Learners (ELs). It is an opportunity for all of us meeting other committees and gain more experiences. We have six seats for our bilingual parents. Personally I love to meet new people so I will fill up application. I encourage you to join us. Please refer to the below link . If you are planning to join us then fill up the form, and email it to us please. The registration deadline is 04/27/2017.

It wasn’t easy for me to make friends in all of these places though. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I had to do whenever we moved. I have been a shy and introverted person since I was born. I didn’t interact with many people when I was younger, which is hard to believe because my brother was so outgoing and talked to everyone he saw when he was younger. Talking to strangers was one of the toughest things I had to do when I was little. I would hide behind my parents and wouldn’t respond to anyone that I didn’t know. It was like my mom was a magnet and I was a paper-clip, always sticking to her side when we went to any public place. I even had trouble talking to my own family members during holidays and family get-togethers.

I’ve never been the “new kid” in school. Sure, I’ve made acquaintance with them when they’ve moved to my school, but I couldn’t ever imagine, and I didn't think that I would have to be put in their shoes. So naturally, this was the first thing I became stressed about. My mom told my sister and I that it would only be for a year and we could stay in contact with our friends in Dubuque through texting and facebook. She had just lost her job and

I’ve been in school for 13 years of my life ,i grew up with most of the same kids; We were a huge family almost, everyone always looked out for eachother.  I was participating in a lot  activities. Since the beginning of freshman year, I participated 3 years of color guard, i met new people with the same interest as me. Almost every friday we had a football game and Saturday's was our competition days; we all bonded as a section when we all got ready and did each others makeup. Then,