Transition To High School-Personal Narrative

My transition into high school was as easy as taking a breath. I had always found school quiet easy and I never had to put much effort into getting promising grades. Before high school I had my whole life figured out, or at least I thought I did. I had planned that I would attend a law school or major in English. After a while of being in high school I started to realize many things. My parents did not have the financial stability to send me to a law school, I was not as smart as all the other kids, little by little I began struggling with a negative mentality about myself and my future. I slowly let go of my dream of becoming a lawyer and decided to join the Health Careers Academy. Soon enough, I began to have a deep interest in the medical field but then again I continued to have the same question; how can I afford going to a medical school? I did not know much about college or what it took to get into college. I assumed I just had to have a pretty transcript and that was all it took. My self confidence began to lower as I saw how other students cruised through their high school years so effortlessly. I never wanted to ask for help because I did not want to seem “dumb”. I would bite my tongue and hold in all the unanswered questions I had. My junior year, I was having a very difficult time. I had a tight schedule which consisted of almost all AP or honors courses. I slowly began to give up because I did not believe that I could do it. I let my grades slip failing almost

His eyes immediately narrowed, and he stopped chuckling. “How you be knowin’ my name now?” he said with his deep

“Come at me, bro!’ I teased while helping a freshman boy a few months ago. Albert and I giggled as we discussed the dialogue in the narrative he was writing. The classroom was calm and filled with students writing in nooks or in small groups. It was completely normal day in my English class. But, that sentence. That’s all it took. Suddenly, Albert was towering over my chair yelling, cursing, and threatening me. I felt the angry spit of his words hit my face.

“Gosh, someone's mad,” I said in a mocking voice. We ignored each other for a while, but then noticed he was walking very slowly behind me. “ZAC!” I yelled to get his attention.

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.

When I was at Tad Gormley watching the Blue Jays and realized I couldn’t stand, I learned not everything goes as planned. My parents were helping my sister move into college, so I was attending the Jesuit football game with a babysitter. During the celebration following a score, I knocked my water bottle onto the track; so, in order to retrieve it, I decided to jump over the fence that separates the field and the stands. It didn’t seem like a monumental task as I had jumped over that same four-foot fence multiple times that game alone. Unfortunately, I was standing at a poorly patched area in the fence and as I jumped my foot barely caught the edge of it. Consequently, I fell awkwardly, but I rotated my body to avoid hitting my head and ended

"Hello?" I Squeaked out. I was nervous. We hadn't had a actual conversation in over a month. He was upset with me and I was upset with myself.

I remember when I was younger, I used to have trouble adding and subtracting. It constantly confused me on where the "1" came from and why it's "carried". Something about it I just didn't understand and it frustrated me. I recall crying in the back seat of the car complaining to my mom about not having enough fingers to solve a complicated subtraction equation in a mathematics workbook my mother bought from family dollars. Then I would sometimes use my younger sister's fingers to cheat, in order to remain tranquil. Finally, my mom decided to sit down with me at the kitchen table to analyze the steps to conquer these monster problems. Once I comprehended this lesson, I was no longer in the dark. Everything after that was as simple as pie. In

Transitioning from junior high to high school for a 14 year old is just short of “peeing your pants” worthy. It’s exciting yet terrifying all at the same time. You realize you will be attending school with so many new people and you have to entirely memorize a new maze of hallways and meet with new teachers, it can be overwhelming. Especially for me, I came from a class of 31 students at a private school, most of which I’ve gone to school with since Kindergarten. In my class of 31 students, there were 3 African Americans and 2 Mexicans, everyone else was Caucasian. Now I wouldn’t consider myself racist at all, more like “innocently unaware” of the vast majority of different ethnicities and races. My ignorance was not out of spite, but from my lack of experience, and to have such a lack of cultural diversity up until you are a

‘Crash’ the smell of my mum’s homemade peanut chicken curry mixed with textbook ink, wafted through the school locker rooms.

Thank God for people who notice things then follow through with appropriate action. He stood there, still looking good, eighty-five years old, thin and upright, completely bald, thinking a second before responding. Slowly, both of his eyebrows rose, wrinkling his forehead; a slow smile crossed his face and I knew he’d sorted the memory from the thousands of similar ones. I was sure he’d placed my name, face and the event in perspective. Then his eyes opened wider, rolling the wrinkles all the way to his bald head and he said, "You and that red haired Eric kid, you two wore the goofy colored shoes and

I got to High School in 2012. I had just graduated from Pershing Middle School. My grades in Middle School weren’t something to be proud of, I was a straight D’ Student and I barely graduated Middle School. The day of 8th Grade Graduation, I vowed to myself that I would do better in High School, that I would be better than I could ever

He looked at me for a moment, then looked away. The tapping of his foot had become rapid and chaotic.

My senior year of high school was when I developed the characteristics I appreciate most. I was out of the house from 6:30am till 11pm every Monday through Friday. I became the presidential advisor for Student Government Association, member of the National Honor Society, treasurer of the German Club, squad leader for the drill team, member of the select choir and concert band, worked part time, and continued my outside-of-school activities. But, my best moments were when I was the co-chair for homecoming. The president of SGA asked me to co-chair homecoming and I was in complete shock, under the impression I was nowhere near significant or “popular” enough to hold this position. The stress, the early mornings, the tough decisions, the budgeting and fundraising issues, I loved every challenge and reward that came with the position. I realized that I had more potential and influence than I initially thought, and I finally had the confidence I always deprived myself of.

He felt his voice suddenly disappear, as he just stared at her for awhile. Great, you moron! Speak she’s going to think your mentally challenged or something! his mind was now arguing with itself, telling him to speak, and as he tried to speak, his voice cracked. “H- Hi… Carmen…” he said exhaling as if he had been holding his breath, his face turned a bit red, as he gave her a grin. “I’m Kyle… You’re pretty…” his eyes went wide, did he really just say that! He did not just say that! He totally had just said that, and he mentally was slapping his head for that one. Way to go moron, going to scare her off already… it was an accident! Still a moron… yeah, I know his mind was again arguing, and he just wanted to yell at his thoughts to shut up, but that wouldn’t have been a very bright idea, he gave a chuckle, and took a breath, trying to calm himself down. “I mean, you are prettier then what I thought you were going to be… like from the chat” he told her.