My High School Experience

“Average? Who wants to be average?” (Rose). During my high school experience, I went through a ton of stress trying to figure out my path to educational success. I was a decently good student with grades consisting of C’s to A’s. Dealing with problems in high school made me realize what I should had done to obtain a proper education. Author Mike Rose of “I Just Wanna Be Average” and article writer Jessica Lahey of “Teaching Math To People Who Think They Hate It” both state solutions to my problems. During high school, I was not very interested during lecture and had a love and hate relationship with math. How I would improve my experience is to do more hands on activities and to learn math in a different way.

Students who are becoming freshmen often ask “what’s it like to be in high school?” High school is not what you think. Freshmen don’t get pushed in lockers, there's not that one popular girl who shoves other students books out of their hands, and the cafeteria is not the most embarrassing place to be. High school is not an amicable. If you really think high school is a amicable place where students smile at each other, think again. Here is some advice from my high school experience.

I recall the beginning of my freshman year when I was thrown into the chaotic and hectic mess that is high school. Not only was I given a much harder course load than ever before, but I also started the year off with volleyball. This made my life so incredibly difficult. As if getting home from a game at 10 o’clock was not enough, I typically still had about an hour of homework to complete due to my honors classes. That season felt longer than a giraffes neck . From the long nights of homework, to the complete mental breakdowns, Freshman year was one of the worst experiences of my life.

Competing in high school athletics was the highlight of my time at Sterling High School, If I could I’d go back and do it all over agin. It allowed me to learn basic life skills, such as time management, self-accountability, leadership, and teamwork. But the most important thing it brought me was a strong support system built up of teammates, coaches, competitors, and officials. My sophomore English teacher once joked that “the girl’s swim team is like a cult” which is pretty close to the truth. From early August to late November twenty girls, a diver or two, and a pair of coaches were inseparable. Together we suffered together through every practice and worked to improve not only ourselves but each other. It was these long hours that shaped

My experience in high school had been rather amusing. I had a lot of friends and really considered myself one of the ‘cool kids’. I had tried so hard to fit in. The most difficult part of high school was not the rigorous AP classes or the immense amount of homework- it was ignoring others’ perception of you. I did not realize this until the middle of my junior year. My grades and relationship with my own family reflected upon my commitment to being the most popular kid in school.

I demonstrated perseverance, diligence, and determination in the face of unfavorable odds. This experience helped me to not only build respect for my teammates and coaches but also to build a sense of willpower. I learned that a team relies not just on one individual, but a multitude of persons, and each one helps contribute to its success. I also learned how to cooperate with a group of people to work towards a common goal. For my dedication and improvement in during the season, I was recognized as the “Most Improved” player on the freshman team.

High School; the most rigorous and aggravating part of my life. “People say high school is about obtaining an education and pursuing acceptance into an exceptional college to succeed in life. To me high school is about building memories and marvelous times that will last forever.” High school has always seemed like something facile due to all the movies that we have watched throughout our childhood, although in reality it is a challenging and momentous part of our life. High school is about obtaining my education, yet obtaining an education can also be enjoyable. Throughout high school, I’ve been completing all my high school requirements and a little extra.

I have been a member of my school’s track team from 7th grade to senior year, in which I was a captain of the team. Being on a team for this long has allowed me to realize the importance of teamwork, dedication, and working hard to achieve your goals. My positive experience of running track in high school has encouraged me to continue my track career in college. I was also a part of the SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) club at my school and I was the president my senior year. In the club, we focused on informing our student body about the dangers of drinking and driving, distracted driving, substance abuse, depression and bullying by making posters and holding bake sales to promote awareness. All of the proceeds to any of our events went to the Lexington Center for Recovery so that parents with addiction problems could support their children financially. During my high school career, I was also a volunteer at the New Rochelle Humane Society and I was a part of a committee that was hand-picked by our President to help improve our school

As a student athlete and captain on the Seymour Varsity Dance Team at Seymour Community High School, I have received amazing support from my family, school, and coaches allowing me to achieve my goals in athletics and academics. I have always appreciated the opportunities to succeed as well as help fellow team mates to reveal the potential as dancers. Becoming a captain on the Seymour Varsity Dance Team also helped me develop as a leader and hone my organizational skills. By working my hardest during and outside of practice, I earned an award for being the most improved on the team. Being on the team helped me realize that there's always skills that I can improve on in and off the dance

High school is one of those times in life where most people have the best times of their lives, but for me I just wanted to get through it. Coming in freshman year I was done with the cattiness of the girls, the social pressures, and the monotony of school. Then I discovered the joy of ceramics! Ceramics was unlike any class I had taken in my entire life and had far reaching effects on my life. Ceramics kept me in high school by sparking my creativity and all of life’s possibilities. In high school I found joy in ceramics, found out what it was to no longer practice, and what it was like to start doing it again after thirteen years.

Each year of school you meet new people and experience new lessons. The school year comes with many hardships and downfalls, but it also comes with some good times. For me personally, freshman year was the not only the toughest year of school to get good grades, it also had some of my most traumatizing life experiences and lessons. Freshman year was not all bad though. For example, I met many new people that I cherish dearly in life and made solid relationships with new friends, teachers, and coaches. Ninth grade is the foundation for the rest of your high school career, so I tried my best to succeed not only inside the classroom, but also outside of the classroom, and I think I achieved my goal.

As I begin my final year of high school, I reflect back onto my last graduation. I consider myself lucky to have attended a unique educational program. The school I attended for 9th grade wasn’t traditional. It was a 25 student Montessori program, serving grades 7-9, in accordance with Maria Montessori’s 3-year education system. I was in 7th grade when I entered the program from a traditional school, and I had never seen anything like it. Whether students were bringing back vegetables from the farm next door, cooking coffee cake for their peers to enjoy, feeding our flock of 5 chickens, or ordering this week’s office supplies - I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Yes, we had the traditional math, science, English, history and language classes, but the unique practical life aspects made it so much more than just a traditional school setting. It was a community full of opportunity and new experiences. This new take on education sparked a love for learning that I will carry with me for years to come.

“I’m only going to college to party!” This is a phrase I’ve heard more times than I’d have liked during my time in high school. It’s always followed by a round of raucous laughter something that has always floored me. Of course, it isn’t my job to judge the motives of my peers, but the nonchalant response always seems to get my blood boiling. For me, college has always been an exciting prospect; a wider scope of information, different points of view, freedom to learn. Ever since I first entered my educational journey, I have been drawn to bettering myself, educating myself, and making myself into a more knowledgeable person. I find myself most comfortable around people who possess different ideas and skills, and enjoy learning new things, no matter how trivial.

Way back in June of 2005 I graduated from Lynbrook High School in San Jose, CA and like everyone at that age, I was looking at my future not sure what I wanted to do. I was considering attending college or a tech school only because that was what everyone was expecting me to do. I was not so eager, I watched my older brother attend college and he was having a hard time of it. He was either living at home commuting an hour and a half each way, or he lived in a small studio apartment and worked 30 hours a week to pay his bills. My brother was constantly tired from a busy school schedule or he was broke because he had to live on a strict budget. He was always struggling with his assignments because of how much he worked and a constant dread of the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans he was racking up to pay his tuition. College was their but I wanted a little more I wanted to know what else there was instead of another four years of school.

High school were four years of my life that I had a lack of motivation to do school work, I didn’t put as much effort into learning. My studying habits would be cramming everything I’ve learned last minute, and not putting much time to sit down and actually learn the material. It was also difficult for me to manage my time properly by organizing time for school, work, sports, and social life. Although, this year I made a drastic change for the better and started to take school a lot more serious and make homework and studying my number one priority. There are a couple bad habits I still have from high school that I can improve on. First, I shouldn’t leave homework last minute. I could start making homework my first priority of the day after class and postpone exercising, social media, and socializing till after, so I have a well-rested night. Second, I always have a tendency of sitting in the back of the class rather than in the middle or up in front, and sometimes that causes me to doze off or not be able to read the board for notes. I can improve on this by getting up earlier than