Personal Narrative: I Am Elijah Frater

In my eighteen years of life I’ve already attended 7 funerals of friends, 3 family members, and witnessed other classmates all to murder and drugs. For a good portion of life my family barely managed to be what was seen as “middle class”. Even with the madness in my life, I managed to stay cool headed and maintain the honor roll throughout school. Not truly knowing what purpose I serve in life, I have no admirations on what career path to go about so I breeze through school just because I can more so than because I feel as I have to. To an extent, I can blame my nonchalant attitude on the chaos around me maybe as Robert could

Often I am mistakenly perceived as perfect by my classmates because of my accomplishments of being a multi-sport Varsity Captain and All City scholar athlete holding a 4.5 GPA. However, I’ve never discussed how imperfect my life actually is. To this day, I’ve kept the secret of the true extent of my childhood poverty from everyone, including my closest friends. Growing up, I’ve lived in a one bedroom apartment with five other people, slept on chairs until I reached the age of five, and only had two-pairs of shoes. One for play, and the other for church, both replaced only until the holes were large enough to the point that my shoes were falling apart. I dislike speaking about the effects poverty had on my life as I fear people treating me

At this point in life, I don’t have the perfect life, I’m not the smartest person in the world, I’m not the most attractive, nor am I the luckiest person, but I know what I have is much more than others do. However, when I was younger I lived in a horrid neighborhood. The kind of neighborhood where the schools aren’t the finest. At the time being ten or so, I knew even if the

Five years ago I made arguably the best choice in my academic career so far, I was sent to the principal’s office at the beginning of seventh grade year, after I failed to analyze one of Tupac’s poems in my English class, here I was, sitting in front of the principal, she gave me a puzzled look, wondering how in the world this guy, who had just moved from Mexico a year ago, and who clearly didn’t speak English, by some means had managed to enter the GATE English, Science, and History classes, and even Algebra 1. Obviously she was not yet aware of my STAR test scores from sixth grade, nor knew I had spent the last year reading every page in my math and English books while the teacher lectured, which not only strengthened my math skills and

I have my eyes congealed on going to college, but I allowed negativity in my life to encumber my grades, my social life, and my happiness. My freshman year in high school was problematical for me because I attend North Atlanta High School, which is a very diverse school in comparison to my middle school and elementary school; which are predominately black. I experience racism and was condemned solely based on the color of my skin; not my intelligence level, not my behavior in class but for the reason that my skin was darker than others. A Caucasian male said to me “My dad has enough money to buy your family and make them my slaves”. I was enraged and filled with anger; instead of informing a teacher I punch the boy in his nose. As a result

During my time spent in elementary, I was filled with hope. Hope that one day I would grow up and go to college. Till this day this dream hasn’t changed, but my grades have though. Constantly, I was on A honor roll. My parents congratulated me for having high grades, and being smarter than most people in my

As a child, I wasn’t the smartest kid in my class. I had trouble in most of my subjects. The other kids would always tease me and call me stupid; and I was tired of it. In middle school I bean studying and reading much more. I started to figure out that everything I would read, the knowledge from it would stay in my brain. On my free time if I wasn’t reading I would be praying. I starting reading every day and from that, I became the top student of my class. My mother was very proud of me knowing I was once at the bottom of my class and now; I have reached the top. I was able to get into a good high school. Of course at my new school, I was an outcast; not only because I am black but also the way I dressed and for my intelligence. Every day in my first year in high school I had begged my mother for new clothes that would help me fit in, and her response was always a no.

Evan is also very kind to all people. Whenever I’m with him I notice that he never judges people, even if there is a scary looking person around, Evan will talk to the man like he is just a normal person like everyone else, which is something I admire about Evan. My brother also does a lot of community service around Ohio, he got a scholarship for it from his college Otterbine. Evan went to Chicago for about 3 months for a mission trip. He walked around and shared the gospel with random people he saw. My brother being so kind is why I look up to him the most.

With this new opportunity given to me, I made the most of everything I had. From coming to school everyday, to staying up long night to get work done, I made sure I took in all I could to set my path where I wanted to go. Taking it step by step, I began to see the subtle changes as I progressed on my path from the path of those that stayed in public schools. Having less of a care over getting work done and not really being concerned over where they went to high school, I saw more people trudging along the road to the stereotypical lifestyle. I really began to question why this happened so often around me. It really instilled in me the desire to change what is happening and change the attitude of just going with the flow. At that point is when my opportunities began to really make an impact and change my

Many of my peers know me to be a sedulous person. I have always had to work harder than everyone else to get decent grades and even then I still did not do as well as most of my peers. However, my junior year of high school my hard work paid off. I was determined to excel, and I wanted to prove to everyone I had potential. I put 110% into all of my assignments and I used other resources to get ahead of my classmates. Conversely, there were nights where I felt like I would never be as intelligent as my friends but I continued to work diligently. There were many days where I stayed after school to work with the teachers in my school’s learning center. In addition, I started to go to a tutor for a few of my classes to get extra help. I did everything

The lifestyle during public school consisted of a carefree and lax atmosphere where I’ve accustomed myself to a belief of hedonism. The homework and exams were relatively easy; for this, I’ve busied myself with physical activities, video games, and friends. In the goodwill of my parents, my parents decided to transfer me to an IB based charter school where at first I wasn’t concerned about anything. I was confident in my abilities to be successful in another school because I obtained a letter A plus grade in public school. Although I was confident in my abilities, my grades didn’t correspond with my abilities the first semester. Consequently, I began to hate the new setting of the school and began to feel scared of something which I had no knowledge of. The mixed emotions greatly altered my ego from pride to desperate. The environment dealt with

Ever since I was a little girl, father always told me that I was going to do “great things” with my life. I suppose that he was right. It became increasingly noticeable, as early as Kindergarten, that I possessed an intellectual skill set that was slightly more advanced than my fellow peers. I remember my teachers paying special attention to me and even using my schoolwork as an example for the rest of the class. My parents would constantly brag about me to their friends and coworkers. And at the end of each school year I would walk away with all of the “most important” merit awards such as: the Honor Roll Award, the Outstanding Achievement Award, Most Conscientious Student, and the Most Dedicated Scholar Award given to select individuals that had maintained straight A’s throughout the year. In fact, my former principal once came up to me and said, “Stacy you are truly a credit to the African American race. I’m so proud of you!” I didn’t quite know what he’d meant by that statement, so I just assumed it was some sort of compliment.

I have never allowed myself to become a victim of circumstance. When I learned that I was going to move a few weeks before the start of my junior year, I decided that I would not just wait out the last two years of my high school career, but instead use the move as an opportunity to grow and become more involved than ever in my school and community. My father’s job as a head of school has led me to live in Seoul, South Korea; Weymouth, Massachusetts; Hernando, Mississippi; and now to Greenville, Mississippi, which is in the middle of one of the poorest areas in the nation. Moving in my junior year of high school has stopped me from being in a leadership position in certain clubs, however the move did not hinder my involvement in my school.

Long time ago, it was 1998. A new day, a new beginning. I was born in a small country where hard-work was the key to success. Oh, my sweet parents who worked hard and guide me to make life much easier. My family were middle class and they could only buy things that were needed. I was the only child in the family. When I was five years old, Dad and Mum enrolled me to a decent catholic school that had a motto of “Veritas Omnia Vincit” meaning “Truth Conquers All” and where bullying was strictly prohibited. Teachers taught good manners and discipline to students. I had many good-disciplined classmates and we were competing for our grades and soon we became friends.

Anyway, from the time I was in kindergarten all the way to before the move, I was always the unquestionable top student in my school. GPA, test scores, reading level, all the teachers claimed I was peerless academic wise. I didn’t have a gift, per se, but I did work my ass off to achieve the highest marks possible. I study hard, skipped going out on school nights to make sure I was well rested, and even avoided television to keep my mind cleared of nonsense. I essentially sacrificed my entire social life to satisfy my parents and no one was about to get in my way. Well, no one except a certain individual.