Personal Narrative: My Four Years Of High School

I made a decision at fifteen most teenagers do not have to make until their senior year of high school. I decided to venture on my own in order to better my future. Sophomore year, I started attending a residential high school for top performing students in the state of Louisiana. Over the past three years, I lived alone while my parents have traveled all over the continental United States therefore learning how to take care of myself at a young age. Additionally, in a diverse learning community such as the Louisiana School of Math, Science, and the Arts (LSMSA), I was able to learn how to work and live with students whose minds function differently than mine.

Being a freshman is the hardest of your four years in high school. Have you ever been pressured to be the best person you can be? This is how my year was as a freshman. Freshman year was the most different I never thought I would of found my way around the school when I first started to go there. Freshman year was the best year throughout my years of high school and it was the only year I had friends. During this year I had a lot of anxieties which dealt with me thinking I’m gonna be alone and not have any friends throughout the year to support me through the whole thing. Also, I would think of the pressure of not doing good in any of my classes so I would think it would affect my GPA in the future. The transition from middle school to high school was a different type of thing to do.

Over my years attending high school I feel like I have grown personally and academically. I have learned to ask for help when needed and to actually get the help I need. When I was a sophomore I really did not mind getting a C in my classes but not having a C in any of my classes doesn't feel good. I now check up and stay up to date with my grades more than before. I feel like this year I have realized how important it is to do the best you can and achieve good grades. I would say that a C would really affect me but I would not try the best to bring it up.

Throughout the past four years of my high school career, I have been rowing crew. I fell in love with the sport the moment I walked onto the team during the fall season of my freshman year. I was young and didn’t know how to react to such a demanding sport. The captain of the team “took me under his wing” and helped guide me to success. I told him on his graduation day that I want to be just like him when I become a senior. With focus and determination, I put my head down, and strived to be as good of a rower and captain as he once was. Every single day I brought my A-game to practice and left my blood, sweat, and tears in the boat and out on the water. In short order, I accomplished goals I didn’t think were physically or mentally possible.

Throughout my years of experience with what I call life, I have struggled through most of it. However, no matter how complicated the situation was I never gave up and was indomitable to finish what I had started. Currently High School is the biggest challenge that I must overcome in order to prepare myself for the ever-changing world that awaits me. Through unwavering determination and constant pressure that I apply to myself, I have made the education I obtain everyday significant towards my future.

Do you believe in bad luck? I'm not talking about just walking under a ladder, or spilling table salt. Rather, sometimes in your life you just run into a tough patch and must persevere through it. This is a very good description of my physical health during my Junior year of high school. You see I broke three bones in a span of 8 weeks, and they were all during athletic endeavors. I broke my right leg playing in a football game, and I broke both bones in my left forearm playing in a basketball game.

Coming from a low-income family a majority of the money goes towards necessities and doesn't leave much for other expenses such as private tutors which in turn caused me specifically during my high school years to take advantage of educational opportunities offered by the school. During my sophomore year up to my senior year, I utilized the advanced and honors courses offered by the school. I started small with just one or two advanced classes but by the time it got to my senior year four out of my six classes were advanced. At the beginning, it was difficult to deal with the demanding and fast-paced courses it took me about the first month of the school year to become accustomed to them.

My freshmen year of high school I decided to try out for the soccer team. High school was a new start. I was ready to make new friends and create new memories. Going into try outs I only knew one other girl on the team. The other people in my grade I knew of them, but I knew little about them. I had never played any sports before. Therefore, I had zero soccer experience. My lack of experience led me to constantly compare myself to other players. I compared how far they kicked the ball, how many goals they got, and how fast they ran. I thought to myself, "I will never be as good as them". The second say of tryouts came around, and I only made it to the first session of two. I had quit. My fear of failure got the best of me, and I lost the opportunity to learn from other people.

In my sophomore year of high school, one of my classmates introduced me to join an extra-curricular club that enabled high school students to test their leadership skills by becoming a camp counselor for fifth-grade students at Camp Allegheny. Every time our school hosted club week, she would pull me aside and direct me to the booth labeled “Camp Allegheny.” When the date to turn in Camp Allegheny applications was soon approaching, she would energetically speak about the fun activities, the involvement with the teachers and fifth graders, and the steaming hot chocolate that was to die for.

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.

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

Leading into my sophomore year of high school, band was the center of my life. Providing social acceptance and a sense of purpose, I could always count on the fine art to get me through the drudgery of high school. Everything seemed to effortlessly go right. I naively believed my desires would always be provided for, as I was somehow the special (albeit, shy) exception. With this idea, I felt invincible going into my first serious audition. Unknown to me, this simple, six hour event, provided the stage on which my perspective would completely change.

There have been many moments in my high school career that have made me think to myself, "Wow, I really am less of a child now than I am an adult." Be it my admission into National Honors Society, or my participation in a classical vocal recital at Wheaton College where I was awarded $100 and third place out of twelve of my peers, I couldn't help but think that I was slowly easing myself into adulthood. But the one event in my life that has truly been a milestone of my passage from childhood to adulthood really didn't even happen until the beginning of my third year in high school. This event was when I was accepted into the student secondary education internship program at my school.

Throughout middle school and my first two years of high school I approached my education with a very negative attitude, I possess a 3.079 GPA, and 1030 SAT (which I am re taking) for my school this is below average. My first two years of high school I never did homework, studied, or even really got involved. This is one of my biggest regrets. During my first two years of school I was getting Bs, and Cs in classes I could have easily been receiving As in if I tried harder. It was not until my junior year when it hit me that college was quickly approaching and schools I dreamed of going to were mostly likely unrealistic. Rather than dwelling on my poor educational decisions I decided to take action, and try harder, and study longer. This has