My Personal Experience : My Experience In High School

I never truly did have a high school experience, sure I had a dozen or so friends, but my relationships with them lacked depth. We may have seen each other on the weekends and laughed at each other’s jokes, but in the end it was entirely meaningless. We had almost nothing in common besides the fact that we attended the same school. The only reason I had made friends with them in the first place was simply out of necessity, after all, no one wants to be that kid that sits alone at the lunch table. Had we not become friends, each and every one of us would have been that kid.

During my high school experience there has been a growth on everything from when I was in middle school. I have grown personally because I have made numerous new friends that I never knew that I was going to encounter. I have grown academically by taking geometry this year, which genuinely expanded my knowledge in math, especially since I desire to have a career in a math related subjects. Finally I grew at sports because I have been doing much superior in my running. As a freshmen at Godinez high school, I have grown personally, academically, and at sports.

Being 5 feet tall, 90 pounds isn’t the ideal way to start high school, especially when you have plans to be a Division-1 student-athlete. If life were an elevator, my elevator was moving up through the floors at a frustratingly slower pace than those around me. I can attest that being picked last and left out can be quite a blow to one’s self-esteem. I have been on the “B” team and have felt that I wasn’t good enough to be out there on the field at all. The feeling, though, never quite sat right with me and I recognized early on that it was my challenge to overcome.

I graduated highschool a year early. I was seventeen years old and it was in the year of 2015. I decided in January 2015 that I was ready to be done with my high scool career,so I went to talk to my counselor and expressed to her that I was ready to walk the stage as soon as possible. The counselor starred at her desktop and got to work for about five to ten mintes, then she looked at me and said "Well, alright the earliest you can graduate is August 2015." I think I may have just stared at her blankly for a second, but I snapped back to reality and became eager to know the steps I would need to take to make this happen. Fast forward to the end of the school year, while everyone is excited for summer break, I was excited to enroll in my summer courses and get the ball rolling for graduation. August approached very quickly and before I knew it I was walking across a stage with a navy blue, silver, and white cap and gown on. The smile on my face was as bright as the sun and I walked with my chest as high as Mount Everest; I was proud.

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when my family would ask me “So are you ready for high school?”. They would ask It with such enthusiasm my immediate response always happened to be a yes. I just thought of course I’m ready it’s just another step closer to growing up It couldn’t be that big of a change. When I look back at that now I can’t help but to see how naive I was for thinking It would be such a piece of cake, that I would come out being the same person I was before I started. I know now that without my high school experience I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and so for that very reason I am thankful.

In the summer of 2013, I received an email that changed my life forever. It was up to me to accept or decline the new journey that allowed me to be accepted into Edgecombe Early College High School. I decided to accept this new journey that was filled with 5 years of butterflies, hardships, new opportunities and self improvement.

Before I truly began to walk with Jesus, I was under the impression that I always had been. I was baptized as a baby, attended the same church my entire childhood, and spouted off every Sunday school answer without missing a beat. I loved the Lord, and I understood that he was my Savior and Creator, but I did not fully understand to what capacity I had been saved and created. I was missing something, and at age thirteen I developed a serious case of perfectionism. I closely monitored what I ate, religiously worked out, and devotedly studied to obtain unbeatable grades. I practiced piano every day until my wrists hurt and would except no less than flawless performances. I was captain of the cheer squad, and often referred to as “little miss perfect.” At a young age, I had constructed an image of what I thought I should be. Behind the facade, I was extremely lonely and insecure, but assumed those feelings were just middle school angst that would subside when I entered high school.

August 2009, in the dead heat of summer I awoke with excitement for the day to come. Shooting up out of my bed to look at my clock. It reads six o’clock in the morning. Going down my checklist in my head I start getting ready for the day. Today is the first day of band camp. Two weeks of sweating your ass off in the blazing Florida sun and enjoying every minute of it.

The nerve-wracking feeling of school hit me a month into summer. When I saw the email regarding my class schedule for junior year, AP Chemistry and AP Psychology were listed. Anxiety was stirring within me. Although I had a notion of the challenge I am about to face, I chose to give it a shot. Having the same teacher for both classes, I sat in the same spot for two consecutive periods, feeling clueless. I was walking out of the classroom when my teacher pulled me aside for a word, she gave me a pat on the back, “You’re the only person taking both classes this year, Good luck!” I was not entirely sure if it was an encouragement or a warning. “What have I gotten myself into?”, “What am I doing this for?”, Countless number of questions starts to formulate as I made my way back home.

The high school I attended was very different. The last two years- junior and senior year- I was allowed to choose the classes I wanted to take. Having this opportunity I always avoided taking an English class. I never enjoyed it and one thing I disliked was writing papers on why I don’t like writing papers. I envied the people who enjoyed writing because as we get older that is a crucial thing we need. In many of my papers I was unable to maintain focus, need to use more transitions words, and lacked the proper knowledge on how to do a correct works cited. I have learned to fix some of my mistakes, but on other things I still need improvement. On my first paper, I struggled with staying focus on my topic. Second essay I struggled with transitioning my ideas from one to another. Lastly, I improved on both my lack of focus on my papers and I included more transition words.

High School was the year that i started to open myself new doors and new abilities for my future . When I was in middle school I got influenced by forends to stick to the ¨cool¨ side and little did I know that none of that mattered in high school. When I entered high school I thought I was going to have to walk in with the coolest shoes and clothes and freshman year was the year that took me to realize that what we have now or how we look does not matter of who we want to become. Freshman year I was really naive and I tried to keep my grades high but still got the average. That year I was struggling because I never grew close to any teachers or friends I was really on my own. Sophomore year came by and I started to open my eyes and I knew that I was doing good but the year before I was struggling in math so that was a heads up that i was not going to be the best in math. One year that I messed up in affected me through all my four years. Although summer school was a big help it was not the same as if taking the class for a whole year. Not seeking for help in geometry was one of the regrets i have in highschool. I sometimes think to myself that it would have been an easy road for me if I would have gotten it but what is done is done and i focus on what I could do in the present. So sophomore year I would go after school ro tutoring and i would ask some of my friends for help. Even if I did not get the A that I wanted I was still proud of myself because I managed to pass

As you grow old and begin your adventure through high school your mind begins to grasp the darkness this world has to offer. Remember that at the end of the path it’s the choices you make and don’t make that will determine what will be at the end of the trail. You are fifteen now my grandson and I know from experience that the evil of this world has already presented itself to you in many forms. Alcohol, drugs, and drama are all a part of life and what many go through including myself. The high school is full of new experiences and the decisions you choose to make that will stick with you for a lifetime.

When I first enrolled high school I was following the current I didn’t have a plan for college or understand what I was going to do with my life. I had a challenging background when it came to academics; my scores were always “alright” but were never enough for Advance Placement courses. I wanted to create a structured path that I could be proud of. I thought I wasn’t going anywhere in life until I challenged myself academically for a better future.

My junior year was the third and final year that I was enrolled in the business academy at my high school. Being in the business academy was just a sophisticated way of saying that I was taking an online business course through a local community college. It also meant that I was automatically a part of a career and technical student organization called Business Professionals of America. For the three previous years, I had participated in the Regional BPA Competition, however, I fell short one place of qualifying for the State Competition each year.

So far in life, my passion has been educating myself to the fullest extent. Ever since I was in middle school, though not as understanding, I knew that all I really wanted to do was take in as much information that the world had to offer for me. Starting with advanced math classes, to other challenging AP courses. I even took the Calculus one and two course at my high school, through PSU, and did everything I could in order to prepare for Calculus three and four at PSU. Yet no matter what boundaries I pushed in high school, nothing was comparable to a real college course. Calculus three and four was by far my most rigorous academic challenge I have ever faced. Through devoting the most time and effort I have ever put into anything, I