Personal Narrative: The Four Years Of High School

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.

After sitting at the same desk for three years, I figured I was beyond seeing anything new. I was wrong. After that third year I saw a lot more than I thought I would. I went up to high school and everything was so much different. The grades were harder, the assignments were harder and the teachers were harder.

Back within seventh grade towards the start of the school year I was put into a course called "Advanced Art" and I sat with a friend. My friend, Javier, wasn't suppose to have the class so he was sure to leave within weeks. During the time with him I noticed this big group of friends that seemed quite interesting to me. Around the time when he had his classes changed the song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus came along and I drew a funny picture about it. I introduced myself into the big group and at first they seemed off about me but then they accepted me, especially this one girl named Tiffany. We had a few classes together so we would sit together and this was a start of a story of best friends.

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.

Throughout my four years of high school i have experienced many challenges that either set my down or brought me up. As a young adult, i feel like there is so much more to learn ahead of me, other than, learning how to solve a math problem or the history behind many of our countries treasuries. For example, in the article “Into Thin Air”, Krakauer explains, someone who sees the summit would be dead set on getting there and be “very difficult to turn ..around…”(226). Similarly, i have struggled with many things, such as, beating sleep to be able to finish assignments on time and sacrifice my time with my friends and family because i would be in such hurry to finish something that would change my grade drastically the next day, but see my

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.

Usually in highschool it's your friends that make it worthwhile those are the people that you remember and the people that make it even more bearable but for me it's the opposite.

Schools seem to expect to their ever-diligent and eager students to go home to complete all of their homework and to study for all of their tests. After all, it is the student's fault if they perform poorly because they failed to use their own time to study. The perfect student receives good grades, do all of the assigned homework, and scores well on tests. This does not, and can not, realistically happen. How much time does a student realistically have? How much of that time is being fought over by different priorities? At times, there are assignments due the next day that require a couple hours of the students time when they only have a half hour after getting home late. Or maybe the student is just lazy. The point stands that the student will not always have the time or the will to continue to play the game of school when they are no longer in the building. If the student has no desire, or lost the desire, to educate themselves or practice ideas and processes in their limited after school hours then there is something horribly wrong in how schools go about educating their

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

While most other traditional high school students have four years of high school courses to prepare them for the road ahead whether that path may lead them to college or straight into a job, I decided that this was not the road I wanted to take. I decided that I wanted to skip a step so that I could make it into college more quickly while still acquiring an advanced diploma (four years of each core class are required as well as 3 years of a world language). I filled out the necessary paperwork and began taking extra classes. In my sophomore year of high school, I took US Government as an independent study class through a program called CDS (Center for Diversified studies). They gave me the work and I was expected to complete it without the

The honors and advanced placement courses I have taken throughout high have been my most challenging and the most enjoyable. My teachers motivated me to work harder which in turned helped me to achieve great things academically. Often my classes were smaller and taught in a more tutorial / discussion based rather than the traditional write memorialization style. I met and developed great friendships in all of my classes with other woman of color who placed high importance on obtaining a better than average academic experience in high school. If it were not for the support of my Spanish teacher last year, I would not have thought it was possible to spend seven weeks in Paraguay living with a host family who did not speak any English at all.

Before I started high school, I thought I wouldn’t change much as a person. Now, I know that isn’t the case anymore because I developed anxiety during my first year of high school. Since then, I have to deal with it everyday. It’s not as bad as it once was but I think it has definitely changed me.

Students spend four years of their lives in high school. Four years to achieve as much as possible, four years to get good grades, four years to work your hardest for a college to say yes, four years to make a good impression. Some students, however, prioritize their time differently. they don’t understand or might forget over the years the value of those four years. choose to party and hang out with friends every night. Despite all the temptations, and with the help of my mother, I kept my eyes on the goal and used the time to my advantage.