Defeating Monsters High school is the time in someone’s life when every one’s opinion about you matter the most. Yet, high school is also the time when you’re supposed to be figuring out who you are. I had a major self-esteem issue for a long time, and when I entered high school is when it hit it’s highest peak. My Freshman year was a rough time for me. It was my first year in high school, and things were so much different than what I was used to. Everyone had their clique of friends. It seemed like everyone knew who they were and where they belonged. I was struggling to find my own place in the school. I was only 14 years old and it’s okay to not know who you are when you’re that young. But when I got to high school, I began to have a lot
of pressure put on me about college. Where did I want to go, what did I want to major in, what did I want to do with my life. I was still a lost little girl. Going into Sophomore year, my self-esteem issues that used to be manageable grew to be out of control. Not only was I dealing with my own insecurities, but also the stress from school and the newly developed pressure of college. High school has this overwhelming effect of having all the best stuff. If you don’t have the coolest shoes, you’re lame. If you don’t wear enough makeup, you’re ugly. Every student in high school has this idea of how a person should be and it’s just wrong. But I didn’t realize this until my junior year. I eventually learned that people’s opinions are irrelevant. I didn’t have to be the person society wanted me to be. I am who I am, and I don’t need someone to approve of that. I found my friends who love me as I am. I have a new found confidence in myself. I am happy with the confident person I am today.
8th grade, 8th grade from the opening day to the signing of the yearbooks. This is the year of memories, goodbyes, and regrets. 8th grade and I’m still realizing that there are people in the world that would die to go to a school like this. A school where every body knows everyone’s name, respects everyone, and where violence and fighting are about as common as the Yankees missing the playoffs. When I’m done with my homework and go to bed, as the days of 8th grade wind down, summer will come and go, and I will find myself in one of those giant, scary places called high school.
It was the beginning of freshman year. I didn’t know what to do or how to react to the people and classes in high school. I was so nervous and shaken about what was to come this upcoming year. My fears of getting lost in the hallways, being late for class, or not being in a class with someone I knew were looming over me. I was in some advanced classes that my other friends were not in. I was scared about what people would think so I felt the need to change who I was.
Walking down the hallway of high school and feeling like an odd person was a horrible feeling that I ever had. New country, new people, new school and not a single person that I knew. It was like a nightmare. I still remember my first day of high school, my first day in American school. I felt like everyone was staring at me and it had not even been a single week that I was already thinking to quit. It was like two road diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.
Junior year was home to the ups and downs, the smiles and frowns, and all the heartache you could imagine. But from struggle you learn, you learn to be who you are and you tend to find yourself. This year was not the best i could’ve asked for, but i learned a lot. The meaning of life and happiness was thrown at my face, like a 300 lbs boulder. It hit me hard, and out of the blue. Coming into this year I definately tried to expect the best but as the days went on i seemed to have lost myself.
Often high school is perceived as a time when a youth finds themselves. While I agree with this, I think it is not only important to figure out who you have been, but also to figure out who you have become and who you will be through growth and maturity. I know that throughout my high school career I have done just that. I have experienced so much since I first walked through the doors to Henderson High School. As a freshman and sophomore, the only major activity that I participated in was Track and Field, which I had been doing since I was 9 and continue to do now. As my junior year comes to an end, I look back on my progress, and I am proud. Recently, I was given a reminder of my newfound involvement when passes for club pictures were handed out. I
Freshman year of high school was my year of growth, for it shaped me into a person that I never thought I was capable of being. In my transition from middle school to high school, I thought that life was perfect; as a result, I took various things for granted such as having two parents, a bed to sleep in, and financial stability, until October 28, 2015.
The first day of high school was one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had. The large buildings, the mass amount of students, the cliques the students formed and everything else made my stomach flutter with uneasiness. It was the first day of high school and I had no friends, no one to walk with in the halls and get lost with. There was no one to make me look less of a loner. Each class was not as bad as I thought; the worst part of that first day was lunch. Questions such as, who am I going to sit with? Should I get lunch? Where should I eat lunch? Should I sit with that girl I met in first period, raced through my head as I walked toward the cafeteria. But as I entered what people called the quad, I saw three girls that I just met during water polo practice in the summer. It was at that moment that I felt the need to be “accepted” by those girls. The same need and desire that Christina felt toward Baby Annie in “Corsage.” I began hanging around them after that day. Wherever they went, I went, whatever they did, I did; it soon got to the point where our coach and friends beg...
The beginning of freshman year was a rocky one. It all started on the first day of school. Mia was nervous, yet excited.As well as being anxious that she will forget her schedule or that she will embarrass herself. Mia went to her first period and noticed that many people from her old school were here. In that first class Mia was confused about the whole lesson. For example, Mia was having trouble with Algebra and she was tensed about English even though that is her best subject. Finally lunch came around, and Mia was thrilled to see that all her best friends were there in the same lunch. The only problem was that they all changed. They were acting very weird around her Mia felt awkward. Mia had told her best friend Lela, that everyone was acting strange. Lela told Mia not to worry about those little things.
My high school years have been an intense ride, both personal and education wise. A year ago I couldn't tell you who I was, I couldn't look in the mirror and be happy with what I saw, and I definitely was more lost than I seemed. Who would have known that just a couple years later, here I stand, confident in who I am and extremely proud of who I have become. Working on myself was the best project I've ever committed to. I'll never regret the lessons and mistakes, the lost days of my identity and the dark days to get to where I am today, because they make me who I am. What was my mess became my memories and is now my message.
It was August 17 and my parents and I just moved to a new place, because our apartment was small and my old school ended in 4th grade. So when we moved to our new house I was scared because I didn’t know whether I had to change schools or not. The week went very fast, I got used to the house, neighbors and landmarks. During this week, my parents informed me that I was going to a new school. This made me happy and scared. I was happy because I was going to a new school and going to make new friends, yet I was scared because I was afraid I was going to be an outsider in middle school, and no one would want to be my friends.
Looking back at freshman year my life was full of “first times”, first day of high school, first football game, first homecoming, first high school test, first practice...etc. I was just like any other high school freshman who walked the halls of Mayfield High School scared of the everyday challenges high school has to offer. And now four years later looking back high school had shaped my life more than anything else. Not only did school teach me math, english, and science, but compassion and my view on life. From the classroom to the basketball court the life lessons i've learned are irreplaceable. Going back to freshman year I remember impulse deciding to join the soccer team, not having played in five years. I enjoyed doing something new and being with all my friends but deep down I was itching for basketball season to come.
I never knew transitions could be so difficult. I lived in Germantown Maryland since I was born and all my friends lived down the street from me. Every Time I went to school It wouldn’t even feel like school because I would talk and hang with my friends. I loved it because after school I would do the exact same thing it was a life I could ever ask for. Once I got into 5th grade I had already made my own group of friends and we knew everything about each other, I looked at them and I could see being friends with them all my life. I got home one day near the end of the school year and my parents said to put my backpack in my room and as the nosey and persistent kid that I am, I had to ask why, of course I got yelled at to just obey them so I did as I was told. I got into the car and eventually we arrived at some houses, at the time I didn’t know that they were model homes I thought we were gonna visit family or someone we knew.
My freshman year was a eye awakening year for me. There was no breakups or anything of the such, but I realized that this is the beginning of the “real life”. I never took school THAT serious and boy did it hit me hard. I've been trying too dig out of a never ending hole of bad grades since my Freshman year of high school. Most people regret doing things or not doing things in high school, and taking everything more serious in the beginning of my Freshman year would be one.
Entering the high school, I knew it was going to be a challenge I was not prepared for. Towards the end of middle school, the teachers tried to scare us about how high school would really be. They talked about how the work would be super hard, how the teachers were going to be stricter, and how it wasn’t going to be easy at all. My first day was packed with homework. I wasn't expecting the teachers to give us homework on the first day; we never had homework on the first day in middle school. It sort of seemed unreal to me. I was hoping that everything would come easy in high school and I wouldn’t have to worry about cramming homework in almost every night.
My first day of high school, the now seemingly small school, seemed so huge and intimidating. Like I would never be able to navigate my way around without stopping at every corner frantically asking each teacher if I was still going in the correct direction. Upper classmen were bustling around the school already knowing where they were going and what they were supposed to be doing. Thinking that this first day would never end, wondering if I could make it to the end and make it home in one piece, I pushed through. Fast forward to three o’clock, the dismissal bell ringing and everyone standing up to leave for the bus or the car rider line, I sat in my chair just staring. Finally, the last day of freshman year was here. After the what seemed