Personal Experience : My Middle Year Of High School

I believe that your grades do not define you, but the amount of effort you put in does. In middle school, I struggled a lot. I had so much going on in school life and in my personal life. I was depressed and completely overwhelmed. There were so many things that I did that I regret, but of course anyone could say I was just the average rebellious teenager, right? In seventh grade, I lied about having a boyfriend, I got grounded multiple times, and I began to hang with the wrong crowd. My grades started to slope downward, as did everything else that was going well for me. My mom lost her trust for me and so did the rest of my family, my best friend moved away, and my dad began to have liver problems from his long past of alcoholism. I just sort

Student experiences can be evaluated in a variety of ways and attributed to the quality of educational systems. At different ages, students are better suited to different types of learning environments and teaching methods; however, the effectiveness of schools and teachers continuously influences all school-aged children. Throughout this analysis, I will focus primarily on my experience during my 6th grade year in middle school, including how my success was affected by the effectiveness of the school and my teachers throughout the year.

My personal experience has to do with the first and second questions (the artists, their roles, and the patron). In both middle school and high school, a handful of people from the most advanced art class was selected to paint murals, backdrops for plays, etc. for the school. In each case, we had different strengths, but all wanted to contribute more than our share to get the most credit for the painting. Each artist then took on the same role, but wasn't working together like Georges’ weavers did. Of course, we didn’t have a true Guild in place; the closest thing being a teacher. Though she usually did not make the important decisions. Therefore, it was up to us to distribute the work amongst us and decide if someone should go back and touch

I would like to pretend that the bridge between elementary school and high school did not exist for me—that junior high just did not happen. I was a seemingly thoughtless kid, determined to make it out of school entirely and live in my own world where nobody could tell me what to do. I was awkward, irrational, and rebellious, three qualities I cannot thank my parents enough for dealing with. But the experiences and people I encountered in my junior high years almost made that whole chapter of my life worth reliving. I went through a lot in junior high, and have many memories of ridiculous instances that make it easy to make fun of myself.

Throughout my three year experience in middle school, I had always been treated like the black sheep of the class. I was that tall, awkward girl with braces, uncontrollable acne, strange fashion, airheaded moments, and unusual music taste. I attended Paauilo Intermediate School and anyone who has heard of that school knows how small the student body is. My entire grade was made up of thirty students, so making good friends was such a rarity. The group that I settled with consisted of four other girls, who I wasn’t exactly thrilled to had made the acquaintance of. We were all significantly different from one another, coming from different walks of life and had different hearts. However, the four of them had one thing in common-- they loved making me feel horrible. I remember being the pushover friend who let everybody else walk all over me because I did not have the heart to say “no”. I remember letting them and everyone else call me “stupid” and didn’t involve me in any of their conversations and because of that, they let me think that my opinions weren’t valid. They used to hide my belongings when I was looking the other way and had a good laugh whenever I got upset about it. But they still referred to me as their “best friend” and let me sit with them at the lunch table, so I was okay with it. After all, all I ever wanted was to be apart of something.

In my first year of high school, I overcame my anxiety of being independent.  All my life since the elementary school, there had always been someone telling me exactly what I should be doing, where I should be going, what needs to be done, and how to get things done. This was especially apparent in elementary and middle school. Students walk together in an assembly, go to lunch as a class, play together during recess, have interactive conversations, and pack up together at the end of the day. Eventually, high school started and everything changed. I was expected to become independent. This concept was new to me and made me anxious. Sooner or later, I had to overcome the fear of being alone.

I walked into the school. My parents were right behind me, and I tried to keep my breathing at a normal pace. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. I can do this. I told myself. It was the day of the audition — my audition — for the Regional Arts Program, more specifically the visual arts section. I didn’t think I’d even make it to the front door of the school, and yet here I was.

Being in middle school is a dreadful place to be, almost all students will acknowledge that this statement has truth behind it. My middle school was a long two-story building that had mirrored halls on its floors, save for the gym, cafeteria, and front office, which were all found on the bottom floor. There were even colored tiles on the floor that indicated the walking paths from one class to the next. Now the experience I had in middle school wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but it could have been worse. Sixth grade year I was separated from my friends I had in elementary school but I made some really fantastic ones that I still have today. However, in seventh grade I was located in a different block of classes from my friends entirely and the only time I saw them was during band class. Little did I know I was going to meet a person that would change my life forever.

In my senior year of highschool I was pretty productive. When I say productive I mean academically, financially, and even socially. I was a student teacher for a 7th grade Science class, a crew member at chipotle, and I played varsity basketball for my highschool team. So, my schedule was really jampacked. It was really challenging towards the beginning of the year because not only did I have those jobs and extracurricular activities but, I have a 5 year old demon of a brother that I also had babysit. Applying to college wasn’t easy at all because I had no support system. By no support system I mean my parents had no idea how the process was to be done so, I got no help from no one when it came to applications or even fafsa deadlines. These couple of months were the most stressful in my entire life not only did I have to worry about my daily life and current classes but, I had to make an effort in placing myself at a good college. My grades actually weren’t negatively affected by this lifestyle which really surprised me to be honest. I took advantage of weekends to hang out with friends and family and have fun but, when it came to the weekdays I was fully booked. I would get home really late from working on the line at chipotle so, my sleeping schedule was not good at all. This made me come to class late and start slacking in some classes that I didn’t as much as my core classes. This was how my first semester of highschool went.

Ever since I was in middle school I always felt different, always the one that somehow stood out but at the same time, i didn’t. The first two years of middle school were kind of hard not because of school but what I faced after school and how I dealt with it. It was every single day that I came home only to face more arguing, it just seemed like everyday something was going to bother my mom or dad. If it wasn’t me or my brothers it was them, my parents always found something to argue about. It was really hard for me because I already had a lot of responsibilities and the weight of school pressing me against the wall, I just wasn’t looking forward to going back home like most of my friends.

Throughout my time in high school, I have always been very active and busy in school activities. Sports have always been a big part of my life as a student. For my first two years of high school, I was a three sport athlete playing football, wrestling, and baseball. Last year I decided not to go out for wrestling and just play football and baseball. I am planning on continuing this for this year also. These extracurriculars helped me learn how to manage my time to get work done. They have also helped me with getting my priorities in line. I like to take pride in saying that I was able to maintain great grades while in sports. I would always flow between a 3.3 and a 3.5 GPA during sports. On top of being active throughout my years of high school, I have also been working from the age of 14. This has made me realize the priorities I hold in my life, and has taught myself discipline when choosing the activities which need to come first. My current employer is Pick N Save in Waupaca, WI. I have been employed there for a little over a year and a half. During my work there, I have learn cashiering skills and how to deal with customers. I have had the opportunity to be the leader of small projects that Pick N Save has had. I had to manage time and people to meet a goal that would benefit the company. Working this job has given me many skills and experiences that will benefit me in the future. Some of these skills include: being an asset while working on a team, communication

In the waiting room of a hospital, anxiously awaiting for my results. Sitting in wonder, questioning if I will be immeasurably miserable for the next few weeks. It was the end of my seventh grade year and I unquestionably did not want to start my summer in this particular way.

At a young age, I quickly learned that I was good with numbers; math always came easy to me. Along with math, science interested me as well and my favorite things to study were the systems of the body in biology. I remember once when I was around eleven years old, my parents took me to the body museum and I actually got to see, in real life, the individual systems of the body. Whenever I got to experience this, I knew that I wanted to learn so much more about the body. During school, my learning style has always been more visual and hands on than anything. I have to see and do in order to learn, and that is how I do well in my classes. When we have group projects it is difficult for me to work with people who are assigned to me, but I do enjoy working with the people I am used to. It is hard for me to meet new people, but once I get to know them, I get along very easily.

Anyone that believes high school is the best four years of your life is grossly misinformed. That would mean the highlight of our lives consists of puberty, standardized testing, and awkward conversations. It’s a constant battle for respect from peers that believe themselves better than others. Regardless of our role in the hierarchical atmosphere, a large portion of high school students get sucked into the whirlwind of spirit and pride. I know I did. How could we not? We spend our friday nights freezing at sporting events to support our friends, our family, and our high school: the only identifying piece of information fellow Missouri residents will ask us about for decades. I’ve been out of high school for less than two years, but the most commonly asked questions among new friends and coworkers still remains: where did you go to high school? Personally, I attended Parkway South. I never planned to go back to high school but a service learning opportunity presented itself and I took an unexpected path.

Throughout my years in preschool, primary and elementary, middle school, and high school, hands-on learning and the relationships I’ve formed with teachers and classmates have made my education effective and fun, forming me into the student and person I am now.