My Experience In High School

My eyes squinted as I gazed towards the massive building that for the next four years would be my success, demise, and most importantly, my high school. As I strut to the tall glass doors, I felt so prepared, confident even. Armed with a couple of best friends, sufficient intelligence, and adequate athleticism, I was positive that everything would go perfectly. After all, high school was the place of beginnings, a place where my friends and I would battle through together; high school wasn’t the place where everything would fall apart.

At the beginning of semester, I was not sure if the course was going to be enjoyable. There were some classes where I thought I had already learned some of the lectures in High School. I asked myself many times, “Why is this course required?” However, as the semester went by, I sort of started to understand the reason for the course. I had never attended college before, and I didn’t really know what certain things were,for example, Financial Aid. The topic time management was also influential across the semester. Learning a little more about my personality was also something that was influential across the semester.

After graduating from Forsyth Country Day School, an academically, rigorous private school, I knew the real world or the real deal was coming to me and that was college. I wasn’t too worried about college because I knew my high school had prepared me good for college by my high school treating us as if we were at a university. We took college like classes; We even had a dress code. My high school had its own honor code that was took serious. It was a challenge that I conquered. My school was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and I live in Ridgeway, Virginia. I managed to maintain A’s and B’s waking up at 6:10 a.m. just to get to school at 8:05 a.m. It was a hour drive down and a hour drive back. It was worth it as I can see now because it prepared me.

I remember the first day I started high school I was so nervous. As a kid I always remember I would had an anxiety problem for almost every little thing. I wake ever morning nauseated, even though there was nothing to worry about because I mean after all it was just school. I remember thinking damn I just got out of middle school here goes another 4 long school years. But what I didn’t know was that those years would go by so fast. After all like everyone says, a lot happens in 4years. On my first day everything was amazing. I had made new friends, so far I liked all my teachers, and I got into this Culinary Arts class that I didn’t even know I liked. I learned so much in Culinary, Everyday I would go in excited to see what I would learn the next.it amazed me so much I even started to help my mom cook, I learned so much in so little so that’s when I discovered I had a passion for learning how to cook and for food. I can honestly say I’m so glad I got into that class because now I know how to cook a little bit of Italian thanks to my culinary class and to wonderful godfather who is an excellent chef in New York City. I learn a lot from my mother who I’m forever thankful I just don’t tell her as much. Thanks to her I learn how to cook almost all kind of Mexican food, I learn how to be a little more responsible, I got into finishing my Diploma.

I am a gamer, a powerlifter, an inventor, a designer, a student. I enjoy my life currently, everything is very mellow and chilled. My life is moving at a phenomenal pace and soon I will be out of high school and into my college career. That is four years away though, my high school graduation and college level scholastic experience that is. That all will start with a <4 GPA that I intend to keep up with and graduate with.

In my senior year of high school I took a ceramics class. One day the teacher invited a professional potter who taught us a convenient way of making pottery. This experience was significant, because it taught me something I never expected to gain from high school which was to broaden my horizons, and approach different subjects with an open mind. I ended up making many pieces at home using that technique.

Throughout my years in preschool, primary and elementary, middle school, and high school, hands-on learning and the relationships I’ve formed with teachers and classmates have made my education effective and fun, forming me into the student and person I am now.

During my first semester of sophomore year in high school, I faced the well known dilemma of actually working for my grades and becoming pressured to the stress of high school. I was just learning how to juggle the tasks of being concertmaster (the top musician/violinist in an orchestra) of two different orchestras and the team of captain of a tennis team I joined by mistake. In that sense, I was a legitimate musician/athlete and I didn’t realize the responsibility hung on my shoulders. Later into the school year, I learned my music teacher signed me up for a performing arts program where I would travel and live on the Radford University campus and learn from world renowned musicians for four weeks during the summer. I then went through the rigorous application process of hunting down teacher recommendations, writing and rewriting admission essays, selecting music for my repertoire, and perfecting my performance technique.

“So, why did you choose to come here?” a dorm proctor asked the very first time we met, right in front of my room in Bancroft Hall, which would be my new home for the next nine months. Confused and a little jet lagged, I did not respond; I nodded, smiled, and stepped back into my room. As the door closed, locking me into my little world of isolation, I thought about the question. I did not know the answer, for I did not “choose” to come to this school. In fact, I expected to attend a school in the UK. However, as a Thai Scholar, I did not have much choice but to go wherever the Thai embassy told me to go. As fate had it, I was placed in one of the most prestigious high schools: Phillips Exeter Academy.

“Sorry, I can’t. I have homework.” That was the constant excuse I used in high school when my friends asked if I wanted to hang out. Junior year of high school was a rough year for me--not only was I taking six AP classes in one year, but I was also in the marching band which dominated a lot of my time. I was so invested in all of these that I forgot how to even socialize. I would negate a lot of my friends and family who wanted to gather and just spend some time with me. Now, don’t get me wrong, this does not mean that I was a loser by any means, I loved to “hang” and party and all the typical teenager tropes. It was just that year. That one year that I screwed myself over with a crap ton of demanding classes. That one year I wish I could do all over again. That one year that would have been enormously simpler had I been amicable enough to accept other people into my life. Which leads to the situation that most strongly defines what my dilemma during my junior year: I should have gone to the movies instead.

People tend to believe that high school is what defines your life. It is where you create who you are and what your future will be, but that isn’t the truth. In high school, I was a person that I didn’t want to be. I was the shy new girl that no one would talk to. On the first day of school I was lucky that someone invited me to lunch. By the end of my first year I had less friends than the fingers on my hands. The few people that knew me in the large school either thought I was mean and rude or they were my friend. I went through the first half of high school not knowing who I was. Eventually I had to move schools and I was tired of being the new girl. I wanted to make people know my name and not be just some face. Unfortunately, my hopes

I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when my family would ask me “So are you ready for high school?”. They would ask It with such enthusiasm my immediate response always happened to be a yes. I just thought of course I’m ready it’s just another step closer to growing up It couldn’t be that big of a change. When I look back at that now I can’t help but to see how naive I was for thinking It would be such a piece of cake, that I would come out being the same person I was before I started. I know now that without my high school experience I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and so for that very reason I am thankful.

There have been times in my life in which my decisions have led to negative consequences. One of these biggest mistakes occurred my sophomore year.

My high school years were enjoyable and they were the best years of my life. I was in a class of about eighty and I could call every one of them my brothers. Although I had a great time outside the classroom, I slacked off during my high school years and did not do the best I could have. I regret not taking full advantage of my high school and I miss those years more than any other period of my life. Academically, high school was a rough time for me. Battling with ADHD over the years was very normal to me, but it constantly got in the way of my schoolwork and caused countless daily distractions. Along with my ADHD, anxiety has also been a large issue for me. I am constantly worrying about things in the future that are not important

My experience in high school had been rather amusing. I had a lot of friends and really considered myself one of the ‘cool kids’. I had tried so hard to fit in. The most difficult part of high school was not the rigorous AP classes or the immense amount of homework- it was ignoring others’ perception of you. I did not realize this until the middle of my junior year. My grades and relationship with my own family reflected upon my commitment to being the most popular kid in school.