Personal Narrative: My First High School Play

Through my time growing up in Corona Queens as a kid I had come to realize something, I was beginning to get shorter as time progressed, the odd part was that I was the tallest in my class, standing at 5,10 in the 7th grade I was considered tall for a kid my age, in addition to only being 12 but regardless as I kept on coming home, I only felt as if I'm getting shorter. one day returning from the library and my reading session about the book Nature I was still in shock about what Henry David Thoreau has said about "sucking the marrow of life", and as I was attempting to think of how I can accomplish what he said, I fell and nearly broke my skull. it was then that I realized that what seemed like a footstep to walk into my home was a 10ft fall.

This year, 2016 and 2017, was my first time at Early College High School. I was very worried and scared at the beginning of the year, but now, I am more comfortable at this school. From re-dos to essays, I have learned a lot this year from my English class. There are many things that I will forget, however, there are also memories and actions I will keep. Lastly, there is advice that I will provide for the upcoming sophomores.

Before my senior year of high school, I was a very shy, closed-off individual. However, my last year I wanted to change that. The primary way I sought to do this was through participating in high school theater. If I was given $10,000 and 30 days, I, Jacob Smith, would put forth these resources towards the improvement of Roxana High School’s drama department.

Throughout my Jr. High and High School career, I've had many pastimes and hobbies that I found I could participate in outside of the classroom for. During the seventh grade and all the way until my sophomore year of High School I participated in basketball. From the seventh grade until my senior year of high school I participated in cross-country. In Middle School I participated in wrestling, and most recently I have partaken in soccer for my junior and senior year of High School. Besides sports I spent a good amount of time dedicating myself to volunteer for the local parks and rec center. I volunteered on projects such as the Annual Triathlon, the Haunted House, and many more. I also volunteered for the local Clinic during their annual 5K Color Run.

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

I had a very rough ending to my high school career. I was quite adament on doing my assignments independently, so I failed multiple classes over my sophmore and junior years. I was behind on the credits I needed in order to graduate and walk. My senior year, I had to retake 4 classes worth of credits and pass all my current classes to graduate. Through all that year long grinding and work, I finished my my credit recovery classes a whole month early. Without putting the idea of not actually graduating with my friends and disappointing my family, I probably wouldn't have done all the work I needed to graduate. Having a goal and the mindset to actually go and achieve it is paramount to actually get somewhere in life.

Throughout my whole high school career what has happened to me in my life has reflected on how I perform. The first two years of high school was smooth sailing for me. I had a little bump in the beginning of the semester. However, that was only for I was not use to the high school setting, so I was only trying to get comfortable with my teachers and their working style. I had the mindset at the time to only focus on school, for I did not have anything else to worry about. The classes I had were fairly simple to keep up with. I believe this was because I only had honors classes during this time, and only one AP class. The teachers I had did not have that many high expectations, as an AP teacher would.

In junior high, I could not wait to grow up. I wanted to be older, be able to drive wherever and whenever I wanted, and hang out with all my friends all the time. Little did I know, that is not really how it works. In junior high, I had a variety of friends and we hung out as often as we could. I was with the same group of girls all the time, we would go to school together, play sports together in the evenings, and hangout together on the weekends. In high school friends change and I was told that it would happen, but we all thought that it would never happen. We, of course, were wrong. Most of my high school career had been taken up with playing sports. It started the summer before my freshman year, I would go from a softball game, to basketball

I have personally struggled with the thought of my future. I am sure all children go through a teenage angst period that makes it difficult to see long term goals as something achievable. Where I feel I differ from my peers is in the fact that I never had a direction growing up. In the third grade when we had to write journal entries on our aspirations I always drew a blank while others had full pages on what they wanted to be. I didn't find my passion till late in the game. In middle school theatre was in my periphery, but I never took much

Your senior year was the best year of your high school career. You made so many friends, your grades were higher than they’ve ever been. You were happier than you’ve ever been. Im proud that you stayed out of drama for almost the entire year. Despite going through heartbreak and surviving a toxic relationship this year, you kept your head up. You competed internationally with your winter guard team. This was by far the most successful year you’ve had, and you should be very proud of all that you have accomplished this year. Some of the things I wanted to accomplish were maintaining good grades, acquiring my esthetics license, and to be accepted into the University of Akron. I had good grades in the beginning of the year,

My highschool career is almost over . I'm a star basketball player and bringing the team to the 2nd straight state championship. I'm a small town kid trying to make it big.

Before joining theatre as a freshman, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I stuck to the background and did my best to avoid being noticed, as I had done for the last few years before high school. It wasn’t enjoyable, and I am not entirely sure why I did this in the first place. I had planned on keeping to myself for my entire high school career, that is, until I joined Theatre.

Of all the experiences of my high school career, the ones that stand out to me the most are the numerous community service projects I have participated. From working booths at Relay for Life, picking up litter on highways, working multiple community dinners, volunteering at elementary schools through our leadership’s PALS (Partner’s in Active Learning Support) program, and serving as a table leader at the middle school’s Character Counts programs, I have made myself available and useful to various aspects of our community. I am very proud of and I have enjoyed my involvement in all these events, my favorite by far is the annual Kings County Farm Day.

After each grandchild accomplished the triumph of graduation, my grandmother created handmade knitted blankets in remembrance of the hard work and dedication put into our high school career. After I graduated I was so excited to receive one of her works of art, but unfortunately my grandmother had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. With this extreme heartache I did not expect her to fashion a blanket for my mile stone; instead we decided to spent our last Thanksgiving with her, watching old movies like “Train, Planes and Automobiles” absorbing her generosity and appreciating while we still had her with us. After my grandmother passed, a few months after, my grandfather brought us out to the house to gather what possessions we

Once again, I sat on the classroom floor, frantically digging through binders, crumpled papers spilling out from my dirty backpack. Tears welled in my eyes as Mrs. Matthews peered over her desk. The homework she gave me, forgotten yet again; even better, there it sat on the kitchen table at home, the paper smudged from sincere effort. Every day of middle school provided a struggle. Without the ability to understand and complete the work provided, School left me disheartened, and made me feel as if my efforts were meaningless.