Personal Narrative: Moving To American High School

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.

Coming into high school was amazing because it was nice to experience, a whole new school setting. But in reality my first year was the worst year. I lost my grandfather along with three uncles, and it shook my whole year. The fact that i am still in school is outstanding, when i look upon it. The most difficult obstacle for me was getting back on track after what i went through my freshman year high school.

I really enjoy doing my homework and learning but, I hate going to school to learn and get my homework. I moved to Vermont after eighth grade because my father got to move higher up at work. I don't know a lot about his job but, I didn't have a say. Back at home in Mississippi I didn't have a lot of friends. I had one named Lucy but when I told her I was going to move she said we weren't friends anymore. I'm starting high school now and I'm so scared to start over again. I love my new room the view is very pretty but, tonight I hate it because tomorrow is my first day of school.

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

In the past year, a lot has changed for me. I lost a grandfather to cancer, then a month later an uncle to a gruesome semi accident. My grandmother on the other side of the family barely remembers me due to alzheimer's, and my mom lost her job but is now working over 1300 miles away in Florida. If someone would have asked me at the start of my Junior year what I expected to happen, I wouldn’t have listed any of those. As anticipated, it was not easy dealing with a downfall of events like that, but the way I was raised helped me cope with it all. I started out at a small private school, where Religion was just as important as Math and English. How we were to act was drilled into us, and after I switched to public school, there was a noticeable

Starting high school was a challenge. There are new surroundings and new people to please and impress. Classes were difficult, not because the work was hard but because there was nothing that was the same. New school, new teachers, and new faces to try to please were to much to handle when everything was falling apart at home As time went on, the smile face mask I had to wear everyday got thicker and thicker and it was getting more difficult to put on every morning. The only thing I would do when I got home was do my homework, read a book, maybe watch a little TV, nibble on dinner then go to bed. That was my life and that was my routine for 2 years. When I did go out with friends I would be home way to early and nothing really happened to make

I moved to the United States in 2003 to live with my mother who then resided in the country for five years. The thought of escaping the war in Monrovia was thrilling but I soon realized that my country’s war was not my only battle. After my arrival into America, I was faced with oncoming waves of challenges. The war had prevented me from attending school for two consecutive years. The knowledge I had was incomparable to that of my peers. My inability to speak English, along with the overwhelming burden of my native tongue made learning in a new American school difficult. I was a foreigner left to present my capabilities clearly through black lenses with no words spoken depicting that I came from a third-world country. I accepted these faults

To know how much I have changed over the years, you should know how I was before I went to public school. I was a sheltered homeschooler, and I had very bad social skills. My parents knew this and that is part of the reason I’m at Remington. The other part is because math sucks. So let me start from the beginning of the story.

“Hey! Do you want to go to the bonfire tonight? I can drive if you want!” I heard the question my friend asked me, and it gave me anxiety. Sure, I wanted to go to the bonfire. However, that meant I had to ask my parents if I could go. I did not want to answer their list of annoying questions. That meant I had to change my clothes from the sweatpants I was wearing. I did not feel like wearing jeans and a cute shirt. That meant I had to socialize with people. I did not have that kind of energy right now. What was the alternative though? My evening would otherwise go as follows: eat dinner, sit on the couch, and throw in a good movie. Pondering the question, I typed back to my friend. “Let me ask my parents!” I did not ask my parents and instead chose to not be social with my friends and stayed inside my comfort zone; that bothered me.

After waiting eight extensive years in elementary school and middle school, I was finally going to go to a new high school. I felt extremely scared, it felt as if I actually had butterflies in my stomach. I was excited to go to the large new building but it almost looked too big.

Changing from a private middle school to a public high school was definitely a huge adjustment for me. Starting in high school was already a big enough adjustment, but switching to public school meant more obstacles for me, such as meeting new people, different types of rules and a new class schedule. The biggest obstacle for me was to understand all the different options for each class. In private school, the teachers never explained to me what AP and honor classes were or how it could help improve my transcript for applying to college. It was not until the end of sophomore year where I completely understood that AP classes were for college credit, but by then it was too late for me. I had already taken multiple classes that I could have possibly

Being homeschooled until I entered the fifth grade, I probably wouldn’t keep the friends or the attitude I retain to this day. One quality you definitely would see if I didn’t transfer into public school is how shy I was. I wouldn’t have seen people the way I did, or acted around others the way I had. Had it not been for the journey of going from kindergarten to being homeschooled and finally to being in public school in the fifth grade, I would be someone completely different. I mean, my first day of school in kindergarten I stabbed another kid with a pencil for taking my lego block. But fifth grade became a whirlwind of new things, I didn’t even know about cliques at the time. When I got into public school is when I met Just-Ice (Justice) who has had that nickname since fifth grade. He and Leon were my only two friends back then. Leon and I underwent a falling out though and we stopped talking as much. But when sixth grade came around, I began to get to know Jesse and a good portion of my good friends today. Swapping school types again later on in life

Everyone have been raced in different places and in different forms. These factors all contribute to everything we do and our success. I was born in the United States but my first every early memory has come from Mexico. Life in Mexico is very different from life in here, factors from the schools and the community.

Some people fracture a bone in their body; some break the same bone twice. A few rupture a bone from slipping on a rug. I happen to be one of the very few for whom both of these scenarios are true. Between the ages of five and seven, my parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class because I loved to tumble and twirl. I knew how to execute everything a little gymnast aimed for: a cartwheel, a handstand, and splits. I always tested my limits with the dream of getting to the Olympics. So, as any athlete, I practiced outside of the gym. However, a normal practice would turn out to crush my dream of winning the gold. Outside at my aunt's house, my cousins and I decided to practice what we learned in the class that week. I had diligently watched the older kids master a back handspring so I thought that I could tackle the challenge. All I remember is falling backwards, thinking I had stuck the landing. However, lying on the floor, I realized that my arm appeared abnormal and shooting pains came from all angles. I had broken my arm for the first time.

As a little elementary school girl, the thought of leaving easy fifth-grade math and science to attend a whole new school filled with different routines, schedules and curriculums scared me. Being the oldest of six children, I considered myself to be the guinea pig and the one that had to experience the journey first without any help. However, the transition was smooth and I got used to the way the school worked within a month or two and was able to survive my three short years until high school.