Finding My Path: The Impact of Upward Bound

Keep your head down. Walk quickly to class. Don’t talk to people. They don’t want to listen to me anyway. Why would they, they don’t like me. This was eighth grade. No real friends shy, not confident. The only place where I wanted to be was at home with my family. Besides my family were the only people who were there for me when I needed them. This mentality carried over to my Freshmen year of high school. I don’t need friends. I just need to focus on my work and make sure I go to a good college. I felt that there was no need to socialize with other students, Getting to college was all that mattered.

I would soon find out that I was wrong and that there were other things just as important as school. I realized this on the day that my math teacher walked over to me. She handed me a packet. “What is this?” I inquired. She told me it was an application for a program called Upward Bound. She then told me that I should apply because it’s a program that would help first generation students with getting into college. I was skeptical, but it seemed like it could be helpful, and I was right.

This place is amazing. That’s what I thought after the first few weeks I was at the Upward Bound.

Within weeks I felt that I had become a completely different person. I gained self confidence that I forgot existed. I was able to talk in front of a bunch of teenagers. I participated in a ping pong tournament, where I beat 29 other students. We had mock interviews and resumes where I put myself out there and had to introduce myself to other people, and talked about myself. I also put myself on the spot and took the lead in many activities such as chemistry class, banner committee, and this past summer in awards and banquet committee. I was willingly meeting new people and making new friends. I loved this feeling. And it was all stuff that I could never have seen myself doing a year