Personal Narrative: My High School Career

It was May 25, 2018 at 7:47 in a steaming hot gymnasium when the name Anthony Joseph Sansalone was getting called from the loud speaker, the sixth to last person to receive their diploma I begun shaking the hands of all the board members and everything that I had known from the last 13 years at the same school was over and a new chapter of my life was stating to begin. A few seconds after receiving my diploma the Class President guided us to changing of our tassels from right to left then commencement was over and I was walking out with my future roommate at BGSU, Vincent Zhang, we looked at each other knowing that our high school career was descending and our college careers were lifting off together. High school was tuff for me due to the fact that I have know what I wanted to do since I was a freshman, I want to become an animator and work for an Academy Award winning company such as

“Soon shall thy arm, UNCONQUER'D STEAM! Afar; Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;

I have always been a studious school-minded person. I went to school at Miles Exploratory Learning Center aka Miles ELC from preschool to 8th grade. I was very hard working receiving all A's and B's throughout my schooling. I then moved to Tucson Magnet High School. I was top 25 out of 600+ kids in my class and got to wear an honors cord and be called up in front of everyone. I graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA something I am very proud of. I worked very hard in high school to make sure I graduated with good grades because I needed all the scholarships I could get to be able to afford college since I am white and middle class and not very many scholarships are offered to middle class families.

Growing up I always took part in extracurricular activities to be more active and social in my life. I grew up with two brothers who had very different interests in things than me so I had to rely on friends and activities to help me from becoming couch potato.

I attended three different high schools as a teenager. I was a member of the JROTC program for four years. As devoted as I was I was on the unarmed drill team for two years at Roosevelt high school called the “ Riderettes “. My junior year of high school we actually made first place out of seventy schools in Kentucky, Louisville. Which means we qualified for Championship Daytona, Fl Nationals. It was a lifetime experience for me as a teenager. Who knew I would be going to Kentucky or Daytona for free with a team I can actually call my sisters. One of the most things I loved about my trip was the beach early in the morning with the sunrise out and all you could see was the beautiful blue waves washing over the shore.

“Ranked sixth, Dorothy Hernandez, Texas A & M University Kingsville, Civil Engineering,” began the description at my high school graduation. I recall my decision upon selecting a school and major, which were all revolved around an anti-teaching attitude. My mother, who comes from a line of teachers in El Salvador, and a school counselor at the time of my graduation, attempted to lure me into the family profession; and as a young reckless teenager would do, I held nothing back when I declined to even consider that possibility. My mom recalls me saying, “Oh no! I don’t want to be a teacher, EVER!” when she helped me consider my career choices.

The first two years of my high school career were effected by health issues. They were the most difficult as I learned more about depression and anxiety and how to not only manage it, but, also to overcome it. There were days that were very difficult for me to make it out of bed, get dressed, and head off to school. I would get dressed, in the car heading to school, and then feel very overwhelmed that I either could not get out of the car or once at school I would have to leave early due to the depression. As a result, my grades suffered during this hardship.

As I think back on my high school career, of which I seem to be doing more and more lately, I now realize that I was fortunate enough to have more positive than negative experiences. I remember as I left middle school my main goal was to attend a high school where I would be able to further my athletic abilities. Luckily for me I went to a school which was great in both athletics and academics.

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.

A challenge I have faced in my high school career was tearing ligaments in my knee. I tore my ACL at the beginning of my high school football campaign. I didn’t know if I was every going to be able to play the sport I have always dreamed of playing in high school again. This injury affected me in many different aspects of my life. In school, on the field, and my family.

Throughout my high school career I have been involved in the band and the health and science academy for 4 years. The southeast high school band is the only club that is near and dear to my heart because I have not only traveled with them all the way to Florida, but I have spent so much time with everyone in the band. This years graduating class of band members only contains five people including me, so we are like a family within a family. With this being our last year of high school we have all taken the time to look back on the things that we would change, good or bad. One of the things that I wanted to change was how the band never got as much recognition as other clubs in the school did. I have voiced my opinion to the band director, as

“Go ahead, underestimate me. You won't be the first… You won't be the last… But you will be wrong”- Steve Maraboli. All throughout my life, people have doubted me and said that I can't and won't do that. The thing is that they are always wrong and I always prevail. Going into my junior year, I knew it was going to be a big year for me physically and mentally. I decided to take my first two Ap courses of my high school career. I knew it was going to be challenging, but I was up for it. I decided to get more involved in school by going to sporting events and joining tech crew. Academically I believe I have been decent despite letting myself down through procrastination and my personal life. This year like every year has been tough. My emotions

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

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.

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