Moving On After High School

After high school I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for a career. After years of wandering I decided to join the military. I completed basic training and technical school in Texas. I was miles away from the comfort of family and friend back home in Maryland. This was the first time that I was truly on my own. After training was complete I was moved to Spokane, Washington. where I completed my term in Spokane and it was time to reenlist or get out the military. I was ready to have my life back so I decided against enlisting for another term. When it was time for me to discharge the first question everyone asked me was “where I going?”. In my mind I had two choices. I was either going stay in tiny Spokane or go back home to Maryland. I spent a few weeks thinking about my options and at that time I was certain home was the best choice. Moving back home made sense for several reasons:

Starting college as a Freshman is exciting; it is also unnerving. The comfort of everything I know is going to disappear and it will be time to grow up and face reality. However, reality isn’t doomed to be negative if I prepare for my future and

During my high school’s years, I wondered on a daily basis what I was aiming to after I finished school. I dreamed of becoming a medical doctor, an archeologist or even a philosopher—certainly, I didn’t have a real idea of what I wanted. During my senior year of high school, all these dreams were truncated after I was kicked out of my house at the middle of the year. When the time to choose a career came, I had fewer options due to the lack of economical support from my parents and because I had missed the opportunities to apply for scholarships. For these reasons, I started to look for the different options that I could get for free. I looked the different pedagogies, some engineering programs, among others; but I decided to study english

After graduating high school mostly everyone has both high hopes and dreams, people whom have high hopes for the career life ahead of them seem to run into manys different obstacles along the way. After graduating high school I finally came to a conclusion of what I wanted to do with my life. My senior year in high school not only did my hopes change multiple times they also changed tremendously. One of the biggest obstacles that I ran into or that I face everyday is my cell phone. My cell phone is my biggest issue when it comes to anything its almost like its impossible for me to put it down. With social media being as big as it is today my head seems to stay in either instagram or snapchat 98% of the day. rather than my phone I seem to run

The transition from high school to college is a dynamic time in one’s life that parallels the change from childhood to adulthood. Both of these changes are dramatic and, as a result, feelings are difficult to put down into words. A messy combination of emotions fills the heart, surfacing in strange ways. Confident high school seniors go right back to the bottom of the chain when entering college as freshmen. These students start all over, just like entering grade school or high school for the first time. The move up from high school to college signals the switch from dependence to self-sufficiency. From a personal point of view, going through the experience of graduating high school and transferring to a residential college campus at STLCOP, made me realize I was no longer a kid and capable of making my own decisions.

Beginning college is like being reborn into the world. You begin your first day with a blank slate, and a thousand fears to go with it. Last year, I started my new life at Saginaw Valley State University. As a fresh graduate of New Lothrop High School, I had no idea what to expect from the world past the cornfields that used to surround me everyday at school. With a deep breath, I gathered everything I learned from my time at New Lothrop and jumped into my new world. My past lessons of leadership, responsibility and dedication prepared me for college, but I still have many more to learn.

We're graduating! Some of us are excited and can't wait to get out of here and move on to the next part of our lives. Some are sad and don't want high school to end. And some are like me, I don’t know what to think, I don’t know if I'm scared, nervous, or excited. Elementary school, middle school, and high school are all alike in many ways. College is a completely different situation. Yes it's school, but you're on your own, the teachers in college aren't the same as ones we've all had in the past. Generally speaking from things I've heard professors don’t go up to you and voluntarily tell you what you missed and make you do missed work or get you caught up, they expect you to get it from someone else in the class. Professors may lecture without giving you notes to follow, while teachers normally do some sort of visible presentation while the talk about it and if you ask them to stop or go back they most likely will. The list just goes on. Some of you might be getting some anxiety right now. I am not anymore. The word future would nearly give me a heart attack if you told me that a couple months ago. What has kept me calm was some very important words said by a wise soul that I believe is something to remember. "Let your advance worrying be your advance planning" Winston

Welcome to college! Congratulations on making it this far! Now the time comes to ramp up the ante! No such program as stepping up to college exists as it does for for high school. Oh wait! It’s called high school. Move it or lose it now, your future rests on your shoulders. High school teachers just handed you your future based on the way you schooled, and college professors tell you to figure it out. College trips up hundreds of students a year, refrain from letting yourself become one of them. Your class strategies must improve as will your study habits and reading habits to fulfill new demands of college classes and avoid sliding into the pitfalls of doom.

These past four years in high school have been full of obstacles for me. My freshmen year my parents were going through a divorce and it was a big transition for us as a family; my mom had a hard time maintaining jobs and I had to grow up quick to help out around the house. The next few years my mom struggled with many different problems in her life which led to her getting evicted amongst other things. I moved in with my dad permanently and now life at home is getting better. I struggled with many things at home through high school but as I reach the end of my senior year those obstacles have only made me a better person. College is something my family is nervous about because my dad is raising four kids on his own and will have trouble supporting

Brooke- We thank you all for coming to this special occasion in our lives. We will start to move forward to high school, college, and beyond. Just like the past, we will gain and lose new friends in our high school years. We are ready to move forward into the next chapter of life. We have worked so hard to become the eighth grade class of 2016 and become the top of the school. Now we will drop back to the bottom and work our way up to being Seniors. You will follow us and watch us on this last chapter of school.

For a majority of students, transitioning from high school to college is a frightening experience. It is when the fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all. We have no idea if we can adapt to a place where every student must stand on their own two feet and take responsibility for their education and future. This change from high school to college is the most significant in our lives and with this change comes many challenges. After reviewing the infinite possibilities of challenges I may encounter, I think my greatest challenges will be managing my schedule and time, approaching my education as a learning opportunity, and going out of my comfort zone and speaking

I thought was fully prepared for college when I walked across the stage on June 1st, 2015, but I was completely wrong. College is a whole new lifestyle that you eventually learn to adapt to everyday. The advice you hear from parents everyday is something you take with you as you navigate throughout campus. Some of the previous advice my mother gave to me is the advice I should of listened to. Now that I am older and on my own, it’s up to me to figure out how everything works.

My curiosity about going to college overrode my fear. As an older student, I was afraid that I would not be able to make it. I thought I couldn’t keep up with younger students and their sharp mind. I was worried that my family life would prevent me from getting course work done. I was worried because I am the only one of my parents' children that has gone to college. Many negative thoughts entered my mind about why I shouldn't go to College. Here I am, almost two years into college and there are two things that have helped me overcome my fear. The first is my hunger for knowledge. I really love learning new things. I may not always excel perfectly, but I have learned so much and know that there is so much more. The next thing that

For many, after graduating high school the next big step is college. I never asked myself why or if I even wanted to. Yet, since I was not yet ready to join the work force, and didn’t want to disappoint my parents, I simply followed the path that I was supposed to take. For a while I had no direction, but through the loss of my high school English teacher and my dream of making my family proud, I discovered that college was the place I wanted and needed to be.

As I graduated high school, I thought college would just be yet another four years of high school, and I was wrong. College opens many new doors in a young man or woman’s life. There are new responsibilities and pressures that you will have to deal with, and with more freedom these responsibilities and pressures can be difficult to handle. College has changed a great deal over the years and these changes, such as more freedoms, make college a much more challenging experience. You need to start preparing for college now by making yourself more responsible and having more self-control. Although you think college is merely partying with easy classes on the side, I have experienced pressures and work loads that make the experience challenging