Personal Narrative: My Freshman Year Of High School

Going into freshman year of high school was something that hit me unexpectedly. I couldn’t believe that 4 years from then I would be graduating. To me it seemed like an eternity of course, as if I had all the time in the galaxy to relax before things would become more profound such as grades, time management skills, and independence.

Over the course of two and a half years from 9th grade I continued to do what I always did my whole life, sat next to friends whether they were distracting or not, played video games, went out with friends, played sports, went to my local gym, and not studying intensely for tests and quizzes as I had always done in the past and aced them with ease. My closest friends knew me for my phenomenal reputation for being an all A student, but within my first

semester of highschool, I dropped to an AB student with the occasional C. I had two siblings in college since I was in eighth grade and I often used that as an excuse for not having anyone to help me with my work I didn’t understand. I had an enormous problem yes, but my naive self just couldn’t see this dilemma until the middle of my junior year. Up until now, I have limited myself on my “wants.” I play less video games, I skip the gym if I have too much schoolwork, and go to tutorials if I need any assistance, and of course I minimize cheating off of someone else’s homework paper as much as I possible can!
Junior year was something I definitely could’ve improved as well by being more responsible, but overall my tactics worked. It has molded me to become who I am this very second by not only being more responsible, but also having self control, and discipline. I learned to fight off distractions in school, and to sit away from disturbing students that didn’t take classes as seriously as I did.
During the summer after junior year I started my first job working at Cinemark.

It brought a whole new set of challenges outside of school that I looked forward to such as transportation without a license, communication without a phone, issues with coworkers, managers, and again, time management. All of which I have mastered very diligently. Now these attributes are always used everyday in my life. It is senior year now and I am always busy with my advanced classes and sports. I tell myself,”If you can survive one week, then you can survive another week.” That has suprisingly worked out very well for me, and gets me through any rigid times. For the most part of my high school experience I have suffered due to my own negligence. My inability to comprehend my problems was extremely poor but, I have revolutionized myself to become a man and not a toddler always asking for mommy to do things. It is already the beginning of my last year and I and very proud to say I have improved dramatically. The resources I used have been right inside my head all along, and it took me two and a half years to figure that out. I have crawled my way through high school until finally, I learned to stand

up.
One person I like to admire is Kevin Mitnick, as he once said,”I made stupid decisions as a kid, or as a young adult, but I'm trying to be now, I'm trying to take this lemon and make lemonade.” Kevin was known for his high-profile arrest in 1995 for various computer and communications crimes. He was imprisoned 5 years for his actions. Kevin now runs a firm named “Mitnick Security Consulting,” and is a multi-millionaire. I learned a lot about his life’s success’ and failures.’ Some of which I like to compare to mine and build off to make myself become the best that I can be.