My First Year Of High School

Throughout my first two years of college, I have had many challenges and successes. I was excited to take this class because it involves something that I have always been interested in. International Studies excites me because it allows me to understand the world on a more practical and realistic level. I had frugal knowledge of relations overseas when I started this class, and now I could not imagine my life before I knew these things. In high school, the only class I took that involved anything on an international level was IB psychology. I was immediately mesmerized by the different cultures I was learning about. When signing up for this class, these intentions and thoughts followed me. International Studies has positively impacted my life in many ways. This class has allowed me to open my mind to many different cultures, this class has helped me understand the different business tactics of other countries, and it has helped me view the United States in a new light.

My first day of my sophomore year of high school starts today. Riverview High School is a huge school and has tryouts for the Kiltie Band Highland Dancers today. If you make it, there is a rumor you are instantly popular. My name was posted on the short list in the hall next to my homeroom class and I am a Highland Dancer now. My best friend Theresa made it also, we have been placed in the same dance group. Even though we are only sophomores we are put into the Senior Dance Group A. This group just happens to be the best dance group at Riverview. We have been informed that we will be in the group that gets to perform at the Inaugural Parade if we make it through the cuts for the Parade.

Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I was preparing for the next chapter of my life. I would be attending UC Davis in the summer for a four weeklong orientation program, specifically for first generation college students. This was the first time I would be leaving home by myself to a different country and it was the first time in over eight years that I would be exposed to the American culture. I did not have any roots in any American city nor did I have a so-called “home state.” However, if there was one thing for sure, it was that Germany was my home and it has been for the majority of my life. In this paper, I will be discussing how the following topics in sociology: culture, socialization, and identity are related to my move from Germany to California as well as how I felt during the entire situation.

As the oldest of the three daughter I was left to take over the house responsibility, due to my mom started working most time in order to keep provide us. Starting my first year in middle school, was already complicated enough not knowing anybody, getting lost, and having to adjust to the new environment around me. And it became more complicated after my dad was sent away from our family. Since we had recently moved to another town. We were still unfamiliar with the city itself and had no family that could help us out. Having left in charge of my two little sister while my mom was at work, I was left to clean, wash and sometimes cook if my mother had not left anything ready the night before. Had to make sure their homework was done and were

Throughout my sophomore year of highschool I had a hard time in Spanish and faced many challenges all year. About two weeks into the school year, there was an issue with my teacher and she was forced into retirement. This left myself and the rest of class with no teacher for over a month. Learning a new language was not the easiest thing for me and I could feel myself moving more behind the longer I went without a teacher. I had three more Spanish teachers that year making it harder to get into a routine to succeed in that class. By the end of the school I had to make the decision of whether or not I wanted to move on to the next level of Spanish. I felt that if I continued I would be setting myself up for failure in the language because of

It’s my fourth year in High School, and it’s my Senior Year, Class of Twenty-Seventeen. It was going to be a good time of my life because I would be ending this chapter of my life and starting a new one. It was going to be a good year and nothing can get in my way from finishing High School. Thinking back at the beginning of freshman year getting lost, trying to find your way around the new school that you’re at and now we’ve become seniors and only thinking about getting to your first, last day of High School. All you can just think about are doing your senior events during the school year like doing: Senior Field Day, Prom, and especially your Graduation. There’s nothing better than going to your graduation, it only happens once in a life time in High School.

A young man starting high school in a few weeks sat by a window thinking to himself. Most of his thoughts were about how scary it would be on the first day of school. His palms began to sweat, and he started biting his nails out of nervousness. Weeks of worry and self-doubt passed when finally the day arrived. The first day of school.

Senior year in high school, I thought I had everything figured out. At the time, I was in a program called PSEO where I was able to go to college while I was in high school. Being a first-generation college student I didn’t know how serious this first year of college would affect the rest of my college career. I should have taken that first year seriously. I thought that I would graduate high school and attend a 4-year university and graduate to go to optometry school. As a planning type, I had everything in place. Until my cousin’s grandma passed away, I grew up with them living a walking block away. I was shocked and reflected on my life that I have planned out for myself. After graduating high school packed up my things and headed out west to San Jose, California to move in with my grandparents. I wanted to spend as much time with them while I attended a local community college called DeAnza. I was surrounded by people who could care less about anyone else but themselves. I didn’t fit, but I stayed to be with my grandparents for the rest of the quarter. As the quarter went by so did my bank account, I had no option but to go home to Minnesota. Once I got back to Minnesota I got a job of being an optometric technician working side by side with the doctor. After 6 months of working there I could not see myself as an optometrist. I attended Normandale Community College temporarily until I knew what my next steps would be but I ended up leaving Normandale with an Associate

The beginning of my Senior year of high school has been an interesting ride, to say the least. Completely new classes and concepts have been thrown my way and I’ve been trying my hardest to catch them. I thought I would be better prepared for some of my classes I’m taking this semester, but it seems like I must start at square one on the majority of my courses. The only way I’ve been able to keep on top of the new information is extreme time management, new study habits, discovering and utilizing efficient study strategies, and asking for help well I needed it.

Going into my first year of college, I knew that I would experience many new things, learn from these experiences, both good and bad, and ultimately grow as a person. The degree to which this has already occurred, however, is stupefying. I surely did not expect to grow and mature as much as I have in the past few months. Even though it is only the first semester of my college career, I feel as if I have lived here for years, time flowing at a dichotomously rapid yet mild pace. Fortunately thus far, my experiences at Allegheny have been almost exclusively positive ones, but nevertheless, I have absorbed all of the information that surrounds me in order to develop as an individual.

I haven’t always had a passion for mathematics. Throughout high school and my first year of college, my only goal was to get a degree with minimal effort. My first year at SUNY Potsdam was dreadful at best. Not only was I miserable taking courses I didn’t enjoy, but my GPA suffered for it. The semester I took Calculus 1 was when everything turned around for me. Starting that semester my GPA stayed consistently above a 3.7. I was finally enjoying learning and doing well in college.

Imagine that you and your mom are on your way back from picking your little sister up from school; your first year of college starts the next day. Life is good, no worries, no pain. Sitting at a red light, you think of what is for dinner tonight while your sister talks to you about her day. Suddenly, you see a car coming way too fast from the lane perpendicular to you. Before you even have a chance to scream, you close your eyes as the car hits the side of your car. All you can think of is if your sister and your mom are safe in the backseat, as the car violently rocks back and forth. This was my story, I injured my lower back during this accident, my mom has two herniated discs in her neck but thankfully my sister was not injured. The driver of the car who hit us was texting and driving, he had no idea what he was doing or that his car was out of control on the road. Smart phones have led to many more distractions to most people driving. I have seen so many people on their phones while driving more so than five or ten years ago. Some people may say that they need their phones for navigation or if there is an emergency. Yet, it only takes a second for an accident to happen. Although smart phones have been getting smarter, I think that most people are obsessive and without restraint with their use of smart phones especially while driving; in order to combat this there needs to be a mandatory device in cars to save lives.

Have you ever looked up from whatever you were doing and see the girl that you want to spend your whole life with, the girl who shares some characteristics with you, who is looking right at you, but you are too scared to say or do anything? It was autumn and the air was cold and crisp. “The bell just rang Kotaro! Let's go, don’t want to be late to class on the first day of school!” Yama said with excitement in his voice.

Having just finished my junior year of high school I’ve gotten by thus far with lazy study techniques that don’t require much effort and grab an A or B. But have I retained all the information I spent many an hour studying for? Vaguely. This is due to my poor study habits. I am a procrastinator; it’s possibly my most favorite and least favorite thing to do at the same time. I don’t try to procrastinate it’s possibly just an innate skill of mine. When I would rather binge watch Netflix or play video games on my PlayStation, a break of about 20 minutes from work seems harmless until 20 minutes turns into two hours. These breaks are enjoyable to an extent, except for the overwhelming feeling of regret that lies still in the back of my mind until I cease to ignore it. This is a fault of mine that deeply intrudes on studying time, accompanied by easily accessible distractions and poorly willed motivation. I’ve learned through this module that when I am not procrastinating and actually studying I don’t make use of my study time well and have adapted (through old habits that helped me get by in the past) a shallow level of learning.

Being the child of immigrants I grew up hearing that getting an education was important. My mother was not able to afford high school in Mexico so she always advised my sisters and me to take full advantage of the free school system in America; and that is what we did. My senior year of high school was tough. For the first few months of my senior year I did not feel excited about college the way that my peers. That is until I visited Trinity Lutheran College on one of its Fall Visit Days.