Personal Narrative: How High School Changed My Life

Through my time growing up in Corona Queens as a kid I had come to realize something, I was beginning to get shorter as time progressed, the odd part was that I was the tallest in my class, standing at 5,10 in the 7th grade I was considered tall for a kid my age, in addition to only being 12 but regardless as I kept on coming home, I only felt as if I'm getting shorter. one day returning from the library and my reading session about the book Nature I was still in shock about what Henry David Thoreau has said about "sucking the marrow of life", and as I was attempting to think of how I can accomplish what he said, I fell and nearly broke my skull. it was then that I realized that what seemed like a footstep to walk into my home was a 10ft fall.

Going through high school the days were all the same, except for game days. There was just something different about the culture of the school. You could almost feel the excitement in the air. Every “Good luck tonight,” that was received made it feel like the whole school was rooting for me. This was my senior year and tonight was an especially big game. The game that night would decide if we made playoffs and if I could step on the court as a Hawk again.

My transition into high school was as easy as taking a breath. I had always found school quiet easy and I never had to put much effort into getting promising grades. Before high school I had my whole life figured out, or at least I thought I did. I had planned that I would attend a law school or major in English. After a while of being in high school I started to realize many things. My parents did not have the financial stability to send me to a law school, I was not as smart as all the other kids, little by little I began struggling with a negative mentality about myself and my future. I slowly let go of my dream of becoming a lawyer and decided to join the Health Careers Academy. Soon enough, I began to have a deep interest in the medical field but then again I continued to have the same question; how can I afford going to a medical school? I did not know much about college or what it took to get into college. I assumed I just had to have a pretty transcript and that was all it took. My self confidence began to lower as I saw how other students cruised through their high school years so effortlessly. I never wanted to ask for help because I did not want to seem “dumb”. I would bite my tongue and hold in all the unanswered questions I had. My junior year, I was having a very difficult time. I had a tight schedule which consisted of almost all AP or honors courses. I slowly began to give up because I did not believe that I could do it. I let my grades slip failing almost

My palms were sweating, my heart was racing, I had no idea what to expect or who I was going to meet. I was never the type of girl to embrace new situations, I hated change and I wasn’t very good with meeting new people. I figured once I got to high school it would be my chance to start all over, turn the page in my book of life, and flip over a new leaf. I wanted to finally be the girl that fit in with everyone. I had imagined myself going to parties with big groups of my new friends, having sleepovers and doing all of the things cool high school kids normally do. I was certain that my high school career would be just like one of those really corny teen movies and I would live happily ever after with the homecoming crown and the boy of my

I was still finding out who I was then, even now I’m not done changing, but I’m not who I once was, I’m not sad all of the time, I have a very small group of friends and I have changed for the better. My high school experience has been very interesting so far. Having few friends in life leads you to finding an alternative; I read of adventures and friendships, I learned the meaning of love and what it means to care about someone, I put myself in the shoes of those I read about. It’s helped me to become independent and more

After sitting at the same desk for three years, I figured I was beyond seeing anything new. I was wrong. After that third year I saw a lot more than I thought I would. I went up to high school and everything was so much different. The grades were harder, the assignments were harder and the teachers were harder.

High School has definitely given me many potentials. Transferring from Leuzinger High School to Moreno Valley High School has made me noticed that I’ve learned a lot such as: how to problem solve, how to not give up on myself, and how to accomplish difficult tasks. For example, when I attended Leuzinger High School, I wasn’t open-minded. This is because I didn’t take any useful opportunity for granted such as tutoring or extra credit. Then, when I moved to Moreno Valley High School, I finally took a chance to take any opportunity into consideration because more people influenced me, which made me believe in myself. The first opportunity I took for myself was going to tutoring for honors pre calculus. Because I played sports, I had to balance

I was always told that things would change in highschool. You would meet new people, find new friends, and even discover a new class that amazes you. No one prepared me for what was going to happen Sophomore year though; no one saw it coming.

So the first thing I want to talk about is how middle school changed my life. When I was first coming into middle school, I was really scared and nervous about a lot of things like not being able to open your locker, bad people, swearing, and a lot of other stuff. Once I first came into middle school, things were, well a lot different than expected. I had no problem opening my locker, the “scary” people weren’t that scary, and swearing was just blocked out of my mind. I really wasn’t that nervous the next day and I just went on going to classes and learning like I usually did. Now about a few months into the school year, I kept on meeting people and making more friends. Little did I know that I would meet my best friend. Like BEST FRIEND.

The summer of 2012 was the start of the downward spiral into my high school career. This ass hole guy decided to dump me and my dumb ass kept going after him when I know I shouldn’t have so I got hella drunk one night (as a 14 year old) and made this hilarious video with my bff that people hated apparently even though we looked hot. And so we got kicked out of cheer lol. Stupid mrs hatfield even had the vid on her phone like wtf lol. So yeah great start to high school.

Back within seventh grade towards the start of the school year I was put into a course called "Advanced Art" and I sat with a friend. My friend, Javier, wasn't suppose to have the class so he was sure to leave within weeks. During the time with him I noticed this big group of friends that seemed quite interesting to me. Around the time when he had his classes changed the song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus came along and I drew a funny picture about it. I introduced myself into the big group and at first they seemed off about me but then they accepted me, especially this one girl named Tiffany. We had a few classes together so we would sit together and this was a start of a story of best friends.

Life is like an ocean. It ebbs and flows. The only certainty is that there isn't any. {except for death & taxes}.

Last year, I was shy of speaking English because I didn’t know a lot. I was afraid that the people would laugh about me If I said something wrong. But the last day of school, my English ESL (English Second Language) told me, “Saul, come”, so I went, “I just wanted to tell you that you have developed your English a lot, and next year you are not going to be in the ESL program anymore, I don’t want you to be afraid of talking English. Good luck.” I thought she was right, so this year I’m not scared of talking English anymore.

My time in High School was made difficult from the constant strife and conflict between my parents. This made my home an unstable environment not fitted for learning or growing as an individual. As I got older and closer to graduating High-School, I began to find my own voice with the help of my mentor Rahn Fleming, which occurred at the end of my junior year. As a result, I came in control of my life and the constant feuding started to die down. No longer did I have to worry about the next scheduled court date, or the next time I would come home wondering what may await. I felt like I was always walking on broken glass for the longest of time throughout my life, until I began to voice myself and what I wanted. My parents came to realize this

I had changed friends but I believe it was too late then, I wanted to take everything back from those school ages. At the time, all the way up until graduation I had the same friends. 7 years later I have not one friend from school anymore. It seems that everyone went their separate ways, and I felt at this time a lot of the things I did were stupid and un thought of.