Personal Narrative: My Degree In High School

Spring 2016 was a semester I thought I would give my all to since it was just one step away before I graduate. I did not realize the overwhelming stress it would have over me struggling to keep my GPA. When I spoke with my advisor for Spring advisement I wanted to transfer to a 4 year college since my GPA was high enough at that point but my advisor informed me I am close to graduating and the better choice would be to finish and graduate with my Associates Degree. I took the advice and enrolled in two science classes, on music class, and one statistics class. Taking two science classes was not the best idea especially being so close to the finish line of graduating. I took a Bio 210 class and Chem 121, I am not a science major and I have decided

one of the biggest decisions of my life was choosing a major for my post high school education. Many people seem to have a general idea to what they would like to major in at a relatively young age while others have a more difficult time deciding what to do with their future and sadly I was one of those unlucky few.

My life began 14 years ago on September 22, 2000 at about 1:30 pm at Mesquite Medical Center. I weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. I have a sister who is 6 years older than me and is currently attending Stephen F. Austin for her 3rd year. When I was born, I had little blue spots on my body, but the most noticeable one is on my finger, it has grown as I have gotten older. My dad also has these mysterious spots and has been to many dermatologists to try and figure out what they are but no doctor knows exactly what to call them.

Last school year was a crazy one. Lots of different things going on, good and bad. I'm usually a C and D grade type of student. School has never been easy for me, i figured it just wasn't for me. I started to give up and not care about school, i stopped doing my work, i let my grades go down and it was bad. I had about 5 Fs, the rest were mostly D’s and C’s. My best friend Erika is an honor student, all AP classes and straight A’s in every single report card. Her parents were so proud of her, we were all so proud of her. I wondered how that felt and told myself that if i try hard enough i can do it too. So i got my act together. it wasn't easy but i was really trying, i started to do my work, i studied like crazy and talked to my teachers more. All in all i dint get to straight A’s but i got to all B’s and maybe two C’s. i was proud, my mom was proud and my best friend was too. My GPA got a little higher and it was all great.

Completing my high school education has come with an array of struggles and challenges stemming from different sources and having varying degrees of difficulty. One of the major struggles I experienced in starting my high school experience was finding a place and a voice for myself among a large group of people who predominately didn't look or sound like me. Taking higher level classes, I often found myself being the only person of color in that class. As I began to make friends and assimilate into the environment I soon realized that having a different background to my classmates and friends unfortunately bridged a gap between how much the people around me could truly understand me and sympathize with who I was. Going to a school with a predominately

Right after high school graduation, I had the opportunity to go to college on a wrestling scholarship. I had to declare a major when I signed up for classes, and I knew from the start what I thought I wanted to do. My favorite subject in school was math, and my two favorite teachers were math teachers, and one of them was also my wrestling coach. I thought he had the best job in the world, and I wanted to do the same thing. I want a career that focuses on something I know and like (math), that lets me be around young people (high school teaching), and that might let me also continue to be involved in wrestling (coaching part time). I also wanted a job that gave me a great schedule: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with weekends and summers off. My parents

Good to meet you! That is exactly the reason why I decided to give it my all at SNHU and finish my four-year education. The trade-off was just too important to put it off with any more excuses. I was a legal secretary for many, many years and in the last 5-10 year (more or less) I have noticed that employers will not even look at my resume if I cannot prove that I have a four-year education. It is really great to see you made that same decision.

As I sat down in my chair, the waves of the Pacific washed up to my feet. The tingly sand, the scent of the Ocean, and the beautiful sunset is truly alluring. My life has been truly magnificent. However, I tune out the wonders of Hawaii and ponder something; How will others remember me? What legacy have I left behind?

While in my quest for higher education, I found that there are a number of majors to apply for and many different occupations. I went through multiple career changes such as being a police officer, a lawyer, a nurse etc. But one career stood out the most and it was nursing. I believe that nursing stuck with me so well because I have always had this positive attitude where I could help people in and out my community. Throughout my teen years I have taken it upon myself to give charity, I went out into with my hometown with a few of my family members and gave a full hot meal to many of the homeless people. I have always been a positive person who always has a smile on my face and always laughing.

Growing up for me was rough, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York where nobody expected much from the youth. I had to be different, my only escape was school. School was the only thing that kept a smile on my face. School was my gateway to happiness. I made the choice to go to college because I wanted to learn more. I wanted to further my education so I can better myself and enlighten my community. I knew college would be expensive, but the cost did not deter me. When there is a will there is a way. The only person that helped me finance my college career was my mother. No one else tried to help me. She was the only person I had that supported me 100%. The only thing that my mother wanted me to do was promise her was that I graduate from college. School was a big thing to my mother. When it came to school she did not play. She always believed in hard work, me wanting to further my education made her proud.

Throughout my high school education, there have been many factors that contributed to my performance. Some were out of my control and others were solely my actions. I take full responsibility for not pushing myself to try harder in school. Some circumstances made this difficult, at the time I lived at home with my mother, sister, and brother but then one day it all changed. First, my brother joined the Marines and left home and soon after my sister followed and joined the Air Force and also left. Since my mother is a single parent, my siblings contributed a lot financially and helped her tremendously. For this reason, she began to work even longer hours. To attempt to help my mother, I started working a lot when I turned 16. My mistake was

My education has never been on a secure pace, but always a roller coaster of inconsistency and long periods of unknowns. From the time I entered High School, first attending Charlotte Catholic, I was never quite able to find a rhythm in my school work. Struggling to balance schoolwork with sports, at times I rushed making silly mistakes that cost me credibility among the faculty and my friends. It was not until I realized I needed to make a change, I needed to find a place and pace where I felt at home. That place for me was Covenant Day School and the change occurred between my 10th and 11th grade years. My friends thought the decision was silly, it would cost me dearly; but I felt not changing would cost me more.

When I enrolled in HHCS in 2008 as a new high school graduate, I was really excited to start my academic path to a superior education. In my family is really important to get a degree, mostly because it represents more than an academic achievement, it shows you can commit with yourself to pursue what you want in life

My goal after high school is to go college for 4 years and take all the class that requires for my career, bank service. I want this job to be my career because it’s an indoor job, and it has to do with helping people organizing their finances, and not only because it’s an indoor job but also because it’s kind of a challenging job.

Mom always told me that if I don’t keep the score up I will have to find a job someday. The score is just what my mom and I call my grades. She means that if I don’t keep up my grades she would stop giving me monthly allowance and you know kids these days, that's what keeps us going. I always listened to her until I started playing basketball. Everyday after school I went to basketball training for two whole hours and I know what you’re going to say, why don’t you do your homework after basketball? Well, you see my team always has these team parties. On other days I have to go to my older sister’s lacrosse games. She is a pro at it or should I say she was a pro at it. Lately, she has been missing all the goals. Now she is always yelling at me and bossing me around. She is always saying “Stephanie bring me this...and Stephanie bring me that…” If you are wondering who is Stephanie? Stephanie is me. Stephanie Helen Cooper, yup that’s me.