Going to high school during COVID-19 was one of the lowest parts of my life, but it was also the most knowledgeable. Distance learning is something I cannot do. Waking up every morning to sit in front of a screen for 5-6 hours was not good for me academically, I was not able to focus at all and little things distracted me. I could not participate in extracurricular activities I wanted to do, even though that was one of the main things I was looking forward to because I never joined a club or a sport. My mental health quickly deteriorated, and feeling left behind was something constantly on my mind. Regardless of the negatives, I learned many things about myself. I was able to unlearn some of my insecurities and become more aware of my emotions. …show more content…
In the middle of my 9th-grade year when Covid became nationwide, it was announced that we would continue classes online and I was so happy. Going to school is almost always an unpleasant experience, the students are profane and the teachers are smug. It was terrible for me. So when I found out we were taking online lessons, I thought I was in heaven. Little did I know it was the worst thing ever. When I was held back in 4th grade, it shattered my spirit and passion for academic success. When I was in 8th grade, I saw I had my first A-B on the roll since third grade. The old me woke up, and I was ready to be an academic weapon. I was doing so well in 9th grade and then the pandemic hit. I constantly missed deadlines for assignments and had a severe procrastination problem. I thought I would still push through and maintain my grades, but I did not. I quickly learned that I could not do remote learning for my life. Sitting in front of a screen for almost 7 hours was difficult, and even though I tried so hard to pay attention, I wasn't learning anything. I barely passed 9th grade, and I failed 10th grade. I had to do summer school for the first time and I felt so embarrassed. 11th grade was when we returned to school in person, but it did not differ from being at home, I failed and had to do summer school again. I passed 12th grade with little of a problem, but …show more content…
I had no more ambition, and I graduated high school in 2023 with a 1.8 GPA. I was bound in my room for days and wasting away in bed for hours. I only got up to do my online classes, but sometimes I didn't do that. Time went by fast for me, weeks passed and it only felt like a few hours. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like a failure who got ‘left behind’ and my world seemed to be put on pause. I have seen my friend's social media posts about attending their dream universities and living their freshman life in school. I didn't have that feeling of being ‘left behind’ since 4th grade and going through that again felt ten times worse because I was an adult and didn't have another chance. I was feeling like this for months, wallowing in self-pity and sadness. I had no idea what to do, so I just signed up to take classes at a community college. Over time, I started to feel better about myself, bit by bit. Holding myself down to societal standards of ‘when you are supposed to do something’ is not good for me. I saw a show a few weeks ago titled Hamilton: The Musical, and the song Wait for It has a lyric I attach to my daily life, ‘I am not falling behind or running late’. Even though it is just a song from a musical, when I saw the lyrics it put me through a lot of self-realization. I was someone who always
I felt as though I was watching a train barrelling towards me, an inevitable bullet that had come tumbling out of the opposing pitcher’s arm. But instead I stood immobilized, watching my team's only chance of winning whiz by me. Strike three. I heard my team from behind me shouting “SWING!” with my mind screaming the same. But my bat remained unmoving, the pop of the catcher's glove like the nail into the coffin that was our defeat. All I had to do to keep our hopes of winning hope alive was swing, and yet I couldn't. I stayed on the field afterwards, tossing the ball up in the air and swinging away, landing it on the thick maple barrel of the bat.
It was the fourth year of my school carrier. In other words, the year of truth if I would make the cut to the higher education track. I was nervous because I knew that I would be capable of going this route, but I the feeling of concern was stronger because I haven’t had performed very well in my fourth year so far. At the end of the school year, I received the shocking news that I didn’t make the cut to go to the school which would have had allowed me to go to University later on in my life. I was sad, disappoint in myself, and lost self-esteem in my educational abilities. At this time, I was more embarrassed then able to realize the real benefit of a system which early on tracks children’s
Throughout my four years in high school I have been fortunate enough to fulfill many of my aspirations and my thirst for knowledge. One goal that I would like to achieve is to become an international attorney. I have aligned my involvement in specific academic and extra-curricular activities to aid me preparing for the long road between my present situation and the day I pass the bar exam. Through my high school activities I have learned three virtues that I have deemed necessary to achieve my goal, passion, self-discipline, and perseverance.
When I graduated from Delran High School in 2007, I had these same positive and desirable attributes, but I was lacking in direction and purpose. It was an extremely stressful time for me as a teenager and young adult as my family and home life was deteriorating. My parents were in the midst of an ugly divorce, my father was a terrible alcoholic who would soon go on to lose his bread-winning job, our house was constantly under possible foreclosure, and I had two younger siblings to help take care of. I quickly found a full-time job and applied to take classes full-time at Burlington County College. I became overwhelmed with the “real world” responsibilities of providing for my family and
In the end, I figured out that I was right to be scared of high school. What happens in those four short years can change the course of the future forever. It’s important to soak it all up and take in as much as possible. Most of the things learned in school are not things that can be learned from textbooks. I figured out that hard work looks a lot better that just being smart and that a positive attitude along with a smile can work wonders. The most important thing I learned so far was to just go for it, no matter what it is or how impossible it seems. Being afraid of things and holding back on change doesn’t help any cause. I learned a lot in that first year of school and hopefully I’ll have the same kind of experience with my first year of college.
Transitioning into high school, I experienced many changes. I became interested in sports, specifically football. I was introduced to a larger group of people since the entire county of teens went to the same singular high school. I actually grew taller! I started to see the world differently as I grew older. I noticed how different life was for White people and Black people in my small area learning to behave differently in mixed company. White people were not real. They were plastic like the characters on television as far as I was concerned. No one told me this, but I came to that conclusion based on my experience with them—as limited as that experience was.
One of the biggest lessons I've learned is to never give up and that everything in life happens for a reason. Throughout my entire life my dreams have been put down by society, wether it was a coach, friend, or family member. Everything I gain is because of me and only me. When I started my first year of high school, I knew I wasn't ready to maintain my academics, my social life, and my sports schedule all at once. I was completely intimidated by everything occurring in my life at the time.
Let’s flash back in time to before our college days. Back to then we had lunch trays filled with rubbery chicken nuggets, stale pizza, and bags of chocolate milk. A backpack stacked with Lisa Frank note books, flexi rulers, and color changing pencils. The times where we thought we wouldn’t make it out alive, but we did. Through all the trials and tribulations school helped build who I am today and shaped my future. From basic functions all the way to life-long lessons that helped shape my character.
My parents used to joke about how I attended online school before everyone else. Like many, I had thought the pandemic was temporary and that life would return to normal within weeks. However, it was a long-lasting global crisis, and everyone stayed home for a year. Quarantine was a peaceful time for me. Despite all the chaos happening in the world, I managed to do well during the lockdown.
One day, I woke up to the sound of an explosion and saw my life flash through my eyes. Without even thinking, I ran to my parents’ room and saw something that changed my life. Both of my parents were looking through the window and crying over the horrible view. At that time, all we saw was smoke coming out of our neighboring street. My dad turned the TV on and we all saw the terrifying view up close. There were cars on fire, houses destroyed and people screaming for help.
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.
In my opinion, I was not the average high school student; I was not concerned with popularity or hanging out with the "cool crowd." Instead, I was focused on doing well academically. On Friday night, when social media was flooded with all my "friends" check-in's, I was usually home working on a school assignment or working a late shift at my job. My past experiences in high school and at work helped me remain motivated and positive; they also helped me become more independent. I plan to help other students acquire the traits that I have so that they can remain focused on their school work.
As I entered high school the pressure to succeed and live up to my parent’s expectations increased. I joined clubs that my parents approved of, I took classes that would look good on my transcript, and I studied 24/7 to keep a good GPA. Seeing the people around me happy and proud of me was a good feeling. I stayed up all night just so I could study and get good grades that would make my family and teachers proud. Junior year I never got more than four hours of sleep a night. I was a zombie just going through the motions of life. As I began to look for colleges, the pressure to be #1 grew. My parents took me on countless college tours, thirty seven to be exact, in order to find the “right school for me.” My parents drove me around the country visiting tons of top engineering schools. Occasionally we would visit schools I wanted to visit. But every visit went the same. If my parents chose the school they smiled the whole tour and spent the car ride home talking about how great it was. If it was a school I chose
Half way through that year my cousin who is like a brother to me decided it was time for him to move to Phoenix Arizona accompanied by his newly wedded wife and try to make a living there. Him leaving really hit me hard, I was pretty close to becoming depressed. During that time I preferred to keep my mind busy as a result my grades shot up almost forty percent. Math in not my favorite subject at all, but for the first time in my entire life I can say that I really enjoyed and looked forward to going to my first period math class, I had the highest grade in that particular class for that semester. For the rest of that school year after overcoming all my problems I was just going to school getting my work done, get home, finish homework and do some work around the house.
When I was in high school I had a problem, which was being shy. Being shy made me seem as if I was anti-social, and caused me to have no friends, but my shyness was decreasing each year of high school because I talked more, and by the time I reached 12th grade I had many friends, who are very close to me till this day. While being in high school, I was always focused on my studies. People believed that I was a genius in high school, but I really wasn’t, I was just focus on the lessons, and understood what the teacher taught us. As I reached eleventh grade, I was chosen to be a part of the National Honor Society; I thought that I was never going to be part of the National Honors Society. I was at the hospital when my friends told me the good news—that I was selected to be part of the National Honors Society. As I reached 12th grade I learned that working while going to school is a bad idea if you can’t multitask right. When I was working I didn’t realized that I wasn’t multitasking right; I wasn’t putting enough effort into my studies, and having a job was distracting me, so I decide to quit my job, and continue my education by going to college. Growing up was scary, but I’m ready what the future is holding for