High school. Where you get over 1000 teenagers together and make them feel as uncomfortable as possible while attempting to prepare them for their futures. Needless to say, some mistakes will be made by each and every one of them. Preparing for the future is scary but it’s something everyone has to do eventually. Of course every high school has that “college readiness” week where they try and scare students into thinking about what college to go to when they’re only 15. It can get pretty stressful, and when stress gets to you, it can make you do weird things. With all of the stress about the future coming at me head first, I had a hard time making the right choices. On top of that, I was only a little sophomore who didn’t have many friends while trying to push my way through this whole “high school” thing. So of course I made stupid choices, but who doesn’t. With all the new and scary things I figured I might as well add Chemistry to that list as well.
In my head I always knew I would take all the required classes and pass with A’s to get scholarships. My counselor told me about Regent Scholars, which apparently would give you money for college. With this being the first scholarship I even knew existed, it seemed super cool and naive little Megan signed up for all of the classes. The first quarter was hard but I thought I could fake my way through it. My teacher kept telling us it only got harder so I proceeded to doodle in my margins and daydream about being in Hawaii. I
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.
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.
Coming into high school was amazing because it was nice to experience, a whole new school setting. But in reality my first year was the worst year. I lost my grandfather along with three uncles, and it shook my whole year. The fact that i am still in school is outstanding, when i look upon it. The most difficult obstacle for me was getting back on track after what i went through my freshman year high school.
Growing up I learned about financial trouble by my parents telling me that Santa’s workshop is under construction, so he’s limited on supplies. I got told that at a young age and at the time I didn’t understand. Once I got older and started following financial situations and saving money, I realized what they meant. Looking back at it now, it isn’t a big deal because I understand what happened. At the time I was upset because I knew I wasn’t going to get everything on my list.
Going into high school it was scary because of the new school. I went to East Moriches and we had a choice between Eastport, Center Moriches, and Westhampton Beach. Westhampton was the right choice for me because the school size was perfect, friends went there and my mom graduated at Westhampton too. The first week was hard to get use because of new classes and different teachers. After the first couple of weeks it was basketball season and my brother and I went to tryouts. After the three days of tryouts there were no cuts and everyone who tried out was on the team. Practice was long and had a lot of conditioning but it was fun and worth it. Home games were memorable playing on the court with our team. Varsity games were more exciting, as
As soon as we arrived to the gigantic mansion we saw an open window on the top floor. I was with my brother Willie and my other two homies Davis and Donny. We had the whole thing planned out to take the cars, we had been following the same plan sense we we teenagers, growing up in California we knew each other's weaknesses.
Growing up we never had a stable household, so basically I went from school to school. I went to 4 elementary schools, the most stable being three years. About my second year of school we went from being somewhat below average to quite below average income wise and lost our house. We basically stayed in a hotel for most of that year. We then moved to a labor camp in Tampa for the finishing of my third grade year. Finally in 4th grade we had some stability where I went to Davenport Elementary for the final three years of grade school. I was very shy for the most part and had few friends in school probably from the contribution of being the only white guy on the black bus outside of the mentally challenged kid who had a grand total of zero
While dressing unfashionably, looking both uneasy and clueless, in a class with no more than twenty students, millions of questions suddenly appear in my chaotic head. Questions such as “what will happen to me?,” and “how can I understand this?” built up the doubt in me. However, who would have guessed that six years later, I would become a girl who has adopted a different vibe with more confidence and enthusiasm, which I thought would never be possible, six years ago.
I guess my school experience has been one of many trials and tribulations, more of a story of redemption. My intent is to shed a beacon of light onto what I deem to be the beginning chapters of my educational journey.
Entering high school, I was quite nervous because I had very big shoes to fill. The previous year, my older brother was named Salutatorian of his graduating class. That is when I knew I had to set a personal goal for myself. That goal was to be on honor roll every semester throughout high school. Neither myself nor my parents would accept anything less out of me. I knew this goal was going to be difficult at times because I am very engaged in extra-curricular activities and athletics, and, not to mention, waitressing every Sunday at a local restaurant. Between volleyball, basketball, and the countless number of clubs and groups I am a part of, I would have to find time for studying, homework, and school projects. Just the thought of this was
Since the time I was in second grade solving multiplication times tables, I have always loved to challenge myself. Entering high school, I was worried about high school; however, I was excited about all of the challenges available to me. My freshman year, I took every Pre-AP class available. That year, I learned that high school was not this terrible beast that would destroy my A honor roll that I worked hard to achieve previous years; high school was just a different environment than middle school and I adapted to it well. The most memorable moment that year was when I found out my class rank was number ten for the first semester. I was ecstatic that I ran around the house telling my family. After the shock passed, I was ready for a new challenge:
Growing up in small-town Alaska has its perks. My home town of Petersburg is a strong and intertwined community, where hard work, service, art, education and culture are very important. Although it was a beautiful place to grow up, life for my family was different. This is the story of my journey out of abusive homeschooling and how experiencing serious challenges in high school affected and effects my personal goal to live a life worth living and do hard things.
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.
It all started freshman year, I’m so excited for high school I thought to myself, I’m going to do so well. I walked into those doors on top of the world. Nothing could bring me down I thought, I was in high school now. Being in high school makes you invincible right? No, that’s wrong being in high school is like walking on broken glass, with each step you bleed more and more until you can’t keep walking. High school breaks you down until you have two choices, stay broken or rise up.
The yellow sunshine was beaming through the semi clean window to the off white wall, the crows were squawking singing their morning song. The recycled boxes were half packed and the room almost looked brand new, Aside from the fact that there were little blue tack stains all around the room from those old collectable space posters. There I was standing on a wooden stool barely able to reach the back of my wardrobe with my short arms. It was always a disadvantage for me tall guy that had long legs but extremely short arms it was sort of the reason why I was so embarrassed to join the high school basketball team back then. Who could imagine that today would be my last day standing here in this old house that my mum rented, going off the collage.