Personal Narrative : My Experience In 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.

I lived in Sterling, Illinois, in a decent sized house outside city limits. I never actually attended middle school, as I was home-schooled for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. During home-school, I got to spend all of my day dealing with my siblings (which is worse than it sounds). If it wasn't my siblings, it was my dad, who I don't really talk to as is. Nothing is the matter between us, I just don't talk much. Most of my time not in school or dealing with my family was spent in video games or exploring a nearby forest. There wasn't much between those two, as I only had two friends I talked to. I worried for the longest time that I would go my middle school AND high school years with only those two friends. I wasn't one that could be described

hen I first walked through Old Colony’s doors when I was a freshman I didn't know if my friends from my middle school were going to be there. Luckily a majority of my friends were accepted too but even if they weren't I was ready to make new ones. Freshmen year for me wasn't really nerve racking but I still had nerves because I was use to the middle school environment where I knew everyone but this was a totally different experience. The teachers that I was assigned to really helped with the middle school to high school transition and I am really thankful for that. Probably the best part of my freshman year was the exploratory program that I went through. There were a lot of shops that really caught my eye but the one that really stuck with

One thing that has been meaningful to me is my experience with high school athletics. I choose high school athletics because of a few reasons. My first reason is how I learned about hard work and if you push yourself, you can achieve your goal. I have been lifting weights three days a week since I was in 8th grade. Up until the summer before my junior year I hadn’t tried very much while I lifted weights. I would rush to finish my workout, sometimes I would even skip lifting. I had wasted my time for three years. I realized that I had to change my work ethic. The summer before my junior year is when I started to push myself. I never skipped lifting the whole summer, and to this day I have not missed a day. I wouldn’t lift to just lift, I lifted

This year, I’m going for the gold. Rather than sitting still waiting for opportunities to come to me, I came to the conclusion that to get the most out of my high school experience, I’d have to chase my dreams. Growing up as a first generation American, I’ve always felt as if I was the “monkey in the middle”, too African to be American, and too American to be African. There have been many times in my life in which I have been taunted and discriminated against for my heritage and at one point in my life, I was ashamed of who I was. All I saw on the television and in magazines were girls with skin lighter than mine and hair that was looser as well. It was a dark time for me and I would never want anyone to experience the things I went through.

Throughout my high school experience I have developed an interest in how government functions operate and observing it occur in the real world. In 10th grade, I enrolled in AP United States History where I not only learned the roots of democracy, but also how the United States government adapted to issues which arose such as the great depression. My teacher, Mr. Estela, connected many current events to prior similar situations in the history of the U.S.A. and most recently during the 2016 election season I began making those connections on my own.

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.

In the last fourteen years of school, there have been numerous memories shared that I will hold with me for as long as I can. From preschool to senior year, I have been with the same group of kids I call my best friends. School has been a place where some great things have happened, and then some not so great things. Some school years have been better than others, and some school days make me want to go back in time to relive the day all over again. Although I may forget everything that happened to me during my elementary and high school years, there is one day that will stick out to me forever. This was a day in seventh grade. The student council had put on a mock accident to teach the kids about drinking and driving.

In the time of my four years in high school I have been through a lot which has affected me academically. When I first started my sophomore year my family was in the middle of a custody battle for my nieces with my brother and his ex-wife. Through the time of fighting for custody an incident happened that ended with the kids getting taken from us and put into foster care. Those events affected me greatly because I was the one who raised my niece Casie from when she was born up until the custody issue. When the dispute was going on I couldn’t focus on any of my work as well with missing a lot of school, which was reflected in my grades. Recently to start my senior year I was sent to Boise Idaho because my grandfather had passed. During that

I attended Loudon Elementary through 2nd to 6th grade. I was sad that I was leaving all my friends but excited to meet new people at junior school. I heard Junior High was a lot different from elementary.The only concern I had was that the classes may be to hard but, it wasn’t that hard once I got there and met all my teachers.My first impression of Tevis Jr. High was that I was really nervous I had wondered how this school was like.Tevis was different than I expected because I thought that I would get lots of homework and I wouldn’t find any friends.

Remember that day, 3 years ago as 6th graders, when our WEB leaders gave us our first tour of Lawson? Remember, trying to hide from those HUGE 8th graders and older siblings who pretended not to know us? I know on my first day of 8th grade I definitely felt excited and apprehensive at the same time. Little did I know that the next three years here wouldn’t just be a game of survival, but a place where I changed and matured into the person I am today. Today, June 8th, 2016, we graduate and will embark on a brand new journey in our lives.

As I sit here writing this essay on my phone rather than a computer screen, I am coping with one of my set backs. As the product of an African couple, I grew up learning the African culture and way of life. As I began my high school journey my parents began their separation journey. They had decided that they no longer could live in the same house together. They decided 21 years together was enough and they wouldn't bear another minute. I know what you are thinking many children deal with this heartbreaking experience, but what made it extremely hard for me was my ethnicity. Up until this I had loved being African but after I saw the way they treated someone that they once loved my perspective had been changed for good. Something as simple as paying a speeding ticket they would not dare

This is a real story that I have experienced, it is about my friends I have from Elementary to High School.

During my high school experience I’ve experienced many challenges and hardships. The things that have helped me the most is knowing that I am not alone and how my past experiences have strengthened me to be able to overcome these new challenges that I am faced with.

High school was hell. I went to a small school, very conservative and very athletics based. If you weren’t playing sports you were seen as less than the other students. Since I wasn’t on any teams I didn’t have many friends. The ones I’d had before high school had moved away or moved on from me. It didn’t help that the year before I started my freshman year I’d gotten diagnosed with major depression. Wanting to die every morning and school do not mix well. My freshman year seemed dire.