Personal Narrative Analysis

If there was a turning point in my life, it probably occurred around my freshman year of high school. Before this year began I has recently received the sacrament of confirmation in the Catholic church. In my church this sacrament is seen as a final step in the process of attaining full membership into the church. We believe that through it you receive certain special gifts and insights. I broach this event because something definitely changed in me after this process. Up until freshman year I had struggled to even get all A's. I'd usually end up just shy of all A's. Suddenly, in freshman year, something just clicked. I was off to a fairly good start with all A's. Something else had changed during this year that probably affected this trend. During

Integrated Science we studied a new field called Quantum mechanics briefly. At this point I was a little below an A, so I took up an extra credit opportunity to watch a video on "What is Space" narrated by Brian Greene.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first show in the series of four, so my science teacher allowed me to write extra credit papers for all four videos with topics like time relativity, quantum mechanics, and multiverse theory. I become so engaged in these new topics that I started to self study them. Obviously these topics require knowledge of a wide variety of advanced mathematical topics, so I began self studying these as well. My peaked interest in these areas drove my grades up and gave me a burning passion for subjects that we were learning in school. As my grades went up, I started to get a little taste of how competitive academics could be. The final ingredient needed for reaching an A+ for me was competition. Another boy and I were always comparing grades and yes, it provided incentive to keep my grades up. My objective was to outscore my opponent, and it was a balanced rivalry indeed. Every time I'd outscore him in something he'd outscore me in another area. This rivalry helped to keep pushing my grades up. And when I switched schools Junior year, I went out on the top of my

class. That brings me to another significant change in this story. By sophomore year I was starting to feel like I wasn't being challenged. I had my rivalry, but the classes were too easy. We'd both be getting A+'s and that seems inflated. So I made the decision to switch schools in order to receive a challenge. If there's a major characteristic about me that I want to emphasize, it's my drive for wanting to learn new topics. At my old school, I wasn't feeling like I was learning as much as I should be, and my move was definitely for the better. This new school challenged me, and I still pushed through it to be at the top of my class again at the beginning of Senior year. There's yet one thing I have to give credit to. As it has done for so many others, Boy Scouts definitely gave me new skills that I will cherish till my death. I was actually working on my Eagle Scout project during freshman year, and I will give it the credit that it helped me to develop a sense for the importance of deadlines and efficiency. My interest in computer science has stemmed from my unceasing study of mathematics. I love the broadness of the field, and I believe that through it I will continue to learn new things throughout my life.