My Love For High School

To many freshman the first day of high school is the opening chapter of a new novel, a fresh start to a sometimes embarrassing middle school experience we would all just love to erase from our memories. August 13th, 2012 was the beginning of my four year long narrative at Cypress Bay High School. Despite my desperate desire to grow up, become an adult, and move far away from my parents for college all that did not seem possible because I had never previously attended a public school. I was struck with fear that I would not be able to adjust to the fast pace dynamics of a large high school.

I think I speak for many people when I say high school is a critical point in one’s life. Coming into high school, things seemed to be tightly-knitted between my peers and I; those of us who had just

Many people say that high school should be the best four years of your life. Most of us entered high school with this idea in mind, determined to enjoy every second of it. The confidence and energy that we held that first September allowed us to dive right into what has been an amazing four

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.

My parents tell me that I took to swimming like... a fish takes to water. It is a safe place where I can float free of worries. Driven by passion and dedication, I decided to begin swimming competitively. Competitive swimming requires an intense level of determination and discipline. Forcing myself to get out of my warm bed at 5:30 in the morning to put on a still-slightly-damp swimsuit and stand in 40-degree weather waiting for practice to start. Putting up with limited lane space and irritating swimmers who think they are faster. Making a conscious effort to work on my stroke form, turns, touches, and techniques. The water becomes a whirlpool of injuries, losses, wins, friendships, enemies, and sickness. The water becomes home.

I just can’t believe there is only few more days of high school left. As the days are getting closer and closer, it's getting sad. I still remember the day I stepped into Maine East High School as a Freshman, at that time, all I wished for was to graduate from this school with good grades. High school was not the way I imagined, it is way different from what I thought and definitely different from Middle School. Freshman year was the “exploring/adventure” year, finding where each classes were, what activities/clubs were offered at this school and many more. Freshman year went quickly and then Sophomore year came up. Sophomore year was probably the least stressful year in high school but from Sophomore year my family and friends started asking me the scariest question “What are you doing after high school, which career?

Entering high school from your nearby middle school, there’s going to be a handful of people. There’s going to be the ones you are confident you’re going to talk, laugh, and continue to make memories with, the ones you doubt you’ll ever speak to, and ones you have yet to ever meet. Something I learned quickly, is that there’s so many people and your connections with them change constantly and they can change you.

High school is such a different experience for everyone. We all take different paths and learn new things everyday. We learn trigonometry, how to fix cars, how to dissect a frog, and different laws in the world. The things we learn in class are very important, but along the way of expanding our educations, one will tend to learn a lot about themselves and others. For me, I feel that my high school experience was not ideal and I constantly complain about the outcome. Looking back in grade eight, I had a different plan for me. It took me up until this year to realize that although my experience was not something worth bragging about, I've learned a lot about who I am. I've learned to take chances, be patient, and

The journey of competitive swimming started at the age of eight for my local `neighborhood team. I exhibited great potential for the future, for I won nearly all my races. This seemed like the sport

As teenagers, we’re all told in high school that “These are the best years of your life! Don’t waste them!” or something to that extent. Though in reality, high school is nothing more than a stress filled scramble to find your own identity or at the very least, one that will allow you to survive the next four years of hormones and midnight cram sessions. Some people find it unnaturally easy to find their clique, and others struggle to do so. I fall in with the latter category.

When I initially began High School I thought internally, this is it, this is the point at which my life changes, this is where school work gets harder, classes get harder, the sports become more advanced, and my evaluations in High School are going to reflect my employment, and universities later on, and everything in my life has finally become a hectic roller coaster. But I know that High School is like a stream because along the way you'll find some trash, go over some harsh spots, discover a whirlpool or two, stagnate for a bit, lastly get to the end of the adventure and acknowledge you have had an awesome ride. I know this without a doubt in light of the reality that back in middle school/ junior high I got awful grades I kept saying to myself every time, that I have to stay focused and get my grades up because my grades in my previous years would follow me through high school. In middle school it was hard for me to remain centered and complete my work, and get decent grades. I had to keep my mind like a sponge and absorb all the details I could in every class.

I remember being an anxious eighth grader thinking about starting my freshman year of high school. We went from being at the top of the school to being at the bottom of a new one. All of our middle school teachers always told us about how our high school teachers wont “hold our hands” and how we will be on our own. Being in high school is completely different than being in elementary school and middle school. Its almost like each year we have more and more freedom but more responsibility.

Throughout my time growing up I have had a lot of people tell me that high school will be the time of your life. In many ways it is. High school for me would be described as fun, thrilling, exciting, hard-working, and some very exhausting years of my life. My years at Millry High School have not been too long compared to others, however my memories are of great lengths. During my time as a high school student, I have tried to become a fairly active student. Participating in Bible club, drama club, yearbook, running for student council, homecoming court, being nominated best personality, and Distinguished Young Women.

I like to swim because I ignore what everyone else is doing and focus on myself. The times of other swimmers and their form compared to mine is not important because what matters to me is that I challenge myself and improve. Because of this, I set a goal for myself, and then take baby steps to reach that goal. An example of this is when I was training to become a certified scuba diver. At first, I was not the best at swimming because I never really learned how to do it properly. I took baby steps to achieving my goal of certification, and it started with learning proper form for the flutter kick. I worked with my instructor and had it done within a day. Then, I moved on to doing the flutter kick with flippers. I did that, and then moved on to doing that with the scuba gear on. This took about two days to get down, but I was able to get certified after I had finished that. This is just an example, and a goal that I am working towards right now in my life is improving the balance of strength in my muscles. The right side of my body is stronger than my left side so I am going swimming at the local YMCA in order to help make my body more balanced. This goal arose from me wanting to challenge myself because when I am swimming, it doesn’t matter what kind of shape I am in, I can still improve upon it. To summarize, swimming is important because it allows me to

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to