Personal Narrative: My AP European Class

Arriving in this class I didn’t really know what to expect, and having a fragile background in English I was a bit concerned on how I would perform. Carrying over twenty years of discouragement stemming from my high school years, I thought I knew enough but came to the realization I didn’t. After a few weeks of settling in to class it felt like doors that I didn’t know how to open could be now opened and ignited my desire for more knowledge. For the first time in my life I was excited to learn English and eager to use it. My reading was above normal along with my vocabulary, however my grammar, and writing structure was my weakest point and that’s what I wanted to focus on.

I had always assumed that my legs were strong and that I had decent muscle control, however, this thought was proven wrong at the beginning of my junior year in high school due to a detrimental injury. It was the first game of fall league for basketball, and within the first five minutes I had succumbed to an injury. Tearing my ACL and Meniscus has taught me to continue improving on my strength, not let this one injury keep me down, and to keep a positive mindset.

In 8th grade, instead of baking cookies or cake in cooking class or drawing pictures in art, I took German 1 to put myself in the position to be placed in AP German my senior year. My freshman and sophomore years of high school I took Photography to work towards taking AP 2D Studio Art along with other AP/accelerated sciences, maths, and english classes. Certainly, there are other students that took just as difficult of courses that I did, but I pushed myself to excel in other courses that others may not have taken.

From the early beginning of the school year to the current day, my writing skills and knowledge have improved and broadened over time. If not drastic, the change is noticeable nevertheless. For almost an entirety of eighth grade, assignments of varying difficulty challenged me to a degree. To be frank, some seemed as though they were beyond my comprehension and ability. However, determination amalgamated with knowledge obtained in advance helped me to overcome my doubts, for I exceeded my expectations; surprisingly good grades and comments are a delight, owing to the fact of that I don’t tend to think of myself as being proficient at writing. Consequently, the assignments given to me this school year shaped me into who I am as a writer.

In this class, I have learned many new skills to improve my writing, and I have also learned new grammar rules. In regards to my writing, I have learned the importance of freewriting when beginning to write a paper. Additionally, I now know to allow ample time for revising and editing because I can look at my work critically for mistakes and make necessary changes. Furthermore, I have learned about grammar rules such as pronoun-antecedent agreement. This rule is something that I know subconsciously, but being made aware of it has allowed me to find mistakes I make more often.

AP Language and Composition was not the easiest course I have ever taken, but it was definitely the most beneficial. At the beginning of the course I was not the best writer. However, as the year went on I gradually learned how to correctly type college level essays. It took many trial and errors to get to the level of writing I am at now, but now my writing is better than it has ever been. On top of Mr. Hamilton successfully teaching me how to write, I also learned that it is very important to have good time management and to be able to finish homework on time. When I was not finishing my homework I would become lost in every group discussions. As the year went on, I began to sit down and do my homework thoroughly every night. Once I started doing that the course started to become less difficult for me. This class is still going to be a difficult, the only difference is whether a student is willing to put in the work it takes to make it a little less stressful than it is. While this class was extremely stressful and time-consuming, I am grateful that I was able to learn the lessons I did before I went off to

I have learned a lot in just 16 short weeks. I have learned how to organize my thoughts on paper, even when I have a fear of a writing assignment. I learned about pre-writing, outlining, rough draft, and finals. In each of these steps, I have learned to depend on each of them. They also help me find out what I need to do next. I always try to reflect on what I have written, even if it may be terrible. I use every bit of information I have to make sure I keep my thoughts in order. My strengths have increased as a writer. I love to write, and I know what to write about when given a topic. I feel strongly capable of writing more assignments, and essays in the future, especially in my Composition 2 class next semester. Having 2 English classes this semester really helped me with being able to

“Your final exam will be in three parts: multiple choice, primary source analysis, and three major essays. I won’t be allowed within 2 miles of you when you take the exam.” The words of Mr. F, my AP US History teacher, reverberated between my ear drums. He either didn’t notice or didn’t seem to care: “The AP US History exam will be on a Saturday in mid May. It’s graded on a scale of 0 to 5. Zero being the lowest possible score, 5 being the highest.” A student in the front row raises her hand, interrupting our baptism by fire. Mr. F motions for her to speak.

It has been a while since we last spoke in Boston. I hope all is well in America. I have just about had enough of China and am excited on coming home in a few weeks.

I never thought that the years would go by so quickly and I am senior now. For having three years in Western High, I learned a lot of things especially educationally and academically. I experienced many things in this school. There were a great times and bad times as well. English is my least favorite subject, which I struggles many times. When I looked back those essays in my portfolio, I couldn’t believe that I wrote a bunch of essays during my three years. There were some great essays and terrible essays. I noticed that on my essays I struggled on these three focus areas: organization, weak evidence and grammar/spelling.

Freshman year English would certainly have been completely diverse without Ms. Karen Minor as my teacher. Through the thick and thin, she understood my struggles and understood how to accomplish specific assignments that for some time I did not fully comprehend. For example, she assisted me with our Personal Odyssey (Adventure) Video project; without any ideas, I personally asked her how to find a perfect event. She gladly and happily offered some ideas, asking questions about what vacation(s) I have been on recently, and she expanded the horizon even more, asking if there was a certain time I felt “at home” on a vacation. Having said this, I finally realized that there was a perfect time to use for my project. With her help, I was able to

Most people’s first thought when they find out they’re being strangled is probably something along the lines of “Oh no! I’m being strangled! Help! Ahh!” or something like that. Mine, of course, was “Aww crap, not again.” I was fairly used to people attempting to strangle me by now, which might have to do with the fact that most people at Shield don’t like my awesome puns as much as I do. However, most of them used their hands to do it, not super powers. That was new. Unfortunately that also meant that I couldn’t use my super awesome katanas to get out of my current situation. I designed them myself, but I was still making modifications. They were way cooler than normal katanas because after reading a certain book series(it’s called H.I.V.E.) I made a few changes to the original design. I could now make them as sharp or dull as I wanted, to a certain degree.

When I’m facing a reading assignment I usually go to my kitchen table when no one is around. I tend to think that I’m sitting on a school desk so I can concentrate accurately. When it comes to perusing I'm not capable of multitasking such as listening to music and perusing a book. If I do, I began to sing along with the verses of the melody and I end up forgetting what I just read. How I typically arrange my reading assignments is by completing my other homework first so in this way I won’t get hurried to complete the reading. I also set myself goals when I peruse, in order to utilize my phone to check my social media I have to read at least 2 through 3 chapters. When I began to read I typically skim the book for a little while to have

Go to school, come home, take care of animals, Homework. That was my regular stupid schedule. Looking back now I remember how much I miss that but hated it. That one day I went to school and there was that man with a knife pointing at me. I shake my head getting that thought out. Then going back to think. My friend was absent from a week when that " flu " went around I never thought much about it since she was always getting sick. Every person in school talked about that flu I never listened since they were always passing rumors. I remember being at home and my dad came home and looked sick. We all noticed that and when he finally looked up he was covering his mouth. My dad built buildings before this happened. So he was always out and about.

The first time I tried to read my prepared case for my debate class sophomore year of high school, I was an absolute mess. Even though I had recited my speech over and over by myself, my legs quivered as I stumbled up to the raised stage in the front of room L14. My heartbeat rose and my throat dried as I tried to avoid making eye contact with the handful of students in the room with me. At the back of the room sat my coach and teacher, Mr. Yager, with his pen poised slightly above a half-used legal pad. The little white stopwatch in Mr. Yager’s other hand beeped, signaling me to do the one thing I couldn’t: speak. The words on the pages in front of me began to blur as tears welled up in my eyes. I half-heartedly chocked out the first few