Junior Year Research Paper

My junior year of high school was most definitely the worst year of my life so far. During the 10 months that were my junior year I suffered a series of unfortunate events. It was like I was drowning and I couldn’t come up for air. Although, now that I am senior, I feel like maybe the events of my junior year were a blessing in disguise. I feel I gained an important lesson about life from that school year.

I’ll start at the beginning. The first few weeks of my junior year were pretty standard. They were pretty uneventful from my previous school years. However, it quickly went downhill. Starting with my grades. The classes I took during my junior year were much tougher than the classes of my first 2 years of high school. On top of that

it was my first year being the officer of a school club, which means I was obligated to be more involved than a regular member, I had recently gotten a part time job, and during the fall of my junior year my older sister and her boyfriend broke up which meant she, along with her twin son and daughter, who were 8 months old at the time, had to move in with us.

Twin babies are a lot of work which means I usually had to help my sister with them, most of the time not willingly might I add. Balancing so much I was starting to struggle in my classes. It was giving me so much anxiety to see my grades drop. I started staying up until midnight or 1 am doing homework in order to keep my grades up. Then winter came and with winter break coming up I thought how nice it would be to get a break. I was so wrong about getting that break. What I mean is, ever since the 2nd semester of my sophomore year my best friend, at the time, was starting to become more distant. That was the semester my former best friend had started hanging out with a new student. Eventually we only talked if I initiated the conversation. Then in December of junior year she had told me she didn’t want to hang out or talk anymore. She said the new kid understood her better than anyone and I was annoying her. We had been friends since the 5th grade! And she threw it

away like it meant nothing. Then came January. It was a new semester. A fresh start, right? More like a sour start. January was when my boyfriend of 3 years broke up with me. The few weeks leading up to the break up were a rough patch, but I thought nothing of it because we had made it through rough patches before. But then he told me was angry I couldn’t spend more time with him because of my school obligations. I was mad that he was trying to dictate my priorities. We then broke up. He stopped texting, calling. We weren’t those ex’es that even attempted to stay friends. It hurt that a person who was in my life for 3 years suddenly was gone. And just when I thought I was done losing people I was wrong. Spring time was upon us. Summer time was close and I had never been more ready for a summer break in my life. But then April 21st, 2016 I received some unfortunate news. I had gotten home from school and I went through my usual after school routine. I was relaxing, making me, my little brother, and my big sister some dinner when my mom came home from work early. I could tell she was upset because her body was slumped and her movements were extremely slow and drawn out almost as if she had weights attached to her feet. I asked her what was wrong and why she was home early. She said, “Your dad’s gonna be home soon. I’ll tell you when everyone’s here.” My first thought was did my mom lose her job? My dad? How wrong my predictions were. My parents sat me and my siblings done to tell us my big brother died in a car accident on his way back to his dorm from work. A person who was distracted by their phone hit him. And when I heard this I could suddenly feel every nerve in my body. I could feel the change in my heartbeat, the ice that cascaded through my body, my stomach turning in on itself, and especially the hot tears that streamed down my face like a river. I became distant. Spent all my time in my room. Refused to go to family events. That was my whole summer pretty much. My parents were worried about me and forced me to go see a counselor at the beginning of August before my senior year. And that’s when I realized how self-centered I had been.
After opening up to my counselor about what the previous year of my life had made me feel I realized all I needed to do was open up to someone. To others this seems so obvious, but for me, I felt no one could understand. I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I pushed people away. And when I stopped to look around at the world, I noticed how much others do this too. It unnerved me to witness this. It made me feel guilty thinking about myself doing this. They say God gave us our family and friends for a reason. And sometimes he takes people out of our lives for a reason. I believe we should all appreciate the friends and family God gave us. Those who offer us a shoulder to cry on. Even if God takes them away from us we should appreciate that portion of our lives they were a part of.