When I was at Tad Gormley watching the Blue Jays and realized I couldn’t stand, I learned not everything goes as planned. My parents were helping my sister move into college, so I was attending the Jesuit football game with a babysitter. During the celebration following a score, I knocked my water bottle onto the track; so, in order to retrieve it, I decided to jump over the fence that separates the field and the stands. It didn’t seem like a monumental task as I had jumped over that same four-foot fence multiple times that game alone. Unfortunately, I was standing at a poorly patched area in the fence and as I jumped my foot barely caught the edge of it. Consequently, I fell awkwardly, but I rotated my body to avoid hitting my head and ended
I had no hopes or dreams growing up. I never thought too much about the future as a child. I lived from day to day just waiting for one to finish and another to begin. I grew up in this fashion and did not change at all until middle school. By middle school, I was aware that life did not revolve around school and that there were expectations for me to meet. Both parents and teachers expected me to rise above and beyond. Now my reason for waking up every day and working hard was to meet these expectations. I worked hard to keep up with the expectations, though eventually, the young child that I was could no longer handle the stress of all the work and slipped into melancholy. It was an endless cycle of work, failure, and shame. This continued until I graduated and went off to high school.
Going through high school the days were all the same, except for game days. There was just something different about the culture of the school. You could almost feel the excitement in the air. Every “Good luck tonight,” that was received made it feel like the whole school was rooting for me. This was my senior year and tonight was an especially big game. The game that night would decide if we made playoffs and if I could step on the court as a Hawk again.
Starting high school was a challenge. There are new surroundings and new people to please and impress. Classes were difficult, not because the work was hard but because there was nothing that was the same. New school, new teachers, and new faces to try to please were to much to handle when everything was falling apart at home As time went on, the smile face mask I had to wear everyday got thicker and thicker and it was getting more difficult to put on every morning. The only thing I would do when I got home was do my homework, read a book, maybe watch a little TV, nibble on dinner then go to bed. That was my life and that was my routine for 2 years. When I did go out with friends I would be home way to early and nothing really happened to make
It’s always been a goal for me growing up to go to college, but you have to like school to be able to apply yourself completely right? Throughout elementary school and middle school, I hated school mostly because I never had a good relationship with my peers and was bullied growing up this would make me really not like going to school and not like my time there. In result, I never enjoyed school or applied myself as much as I wish I did in my years leading up to high school. When I got into high school is when it all changed My freshman year I went completely out of my comfort zone and tried out for cheerleading and made it. Freshman year through senior year cheer completely changed my relationship with the school and my peers. Freshman and sophomore year I started to involve myself into a lot of community service activities and clubs. I
Through my time growing up in Corona Queens as a kid I had come to realize something, I was beginning to get shorter as time progressed, the odd part was that I was the tallest in my class, standing at 5,10 in the 7th grade I was considered tall for a kid my age, in addition to only being 12 but regardless as I kept on coming home, I only felt as if I'm getting shorter. one day returning from the library and my reading session about the book Nature I was still in shock about what Henry David Thoreau has said about "sucking the marrow of life", and as I was attempting to think of how I can accomplish what he said, I fell and nearly broke my skull. it was then that I realized that what seemed like a footstep to walk into my home was a 10ft fall.
After waiting eight extensive years in elementary school and middle school, I was finally going to go to a new high school. I felt extremely scared, it felt as if I actually had butterflies in my stomach. I was excited to go to the large new building but it almost looked too big.
When that year ended and I was transitioning to high school, Mr. Joyner made a decision to move me, Ja’quez, and Emmaus Holder up to the high school team known as HYPE. I was unsure of myself at first, I didn’t think I could or would make it on the varsity team of the organization. But that year, I saw a great improvement in myself. I got straight A’s that school year. I started becoming a better leader in the organization. That year we went undefeated and won the NC Step Show Championship, the Battle of the Border championship, and we even won the CIAA step show in the high school division. At one point, I was told I was going to be the next captain of HYPE. But, it was given fairly to my Immanuel Thomas and he is doing a very good job and has really taken up the mantle as captain. In the organization, I am know as “Grit” because of my impressive grit face. It originated from the first CIAA the organization ever went to and I was told I needed a new and
When I was at Tad Gormley watching the Blue Jays and realized that I couldn’t stand, I learned that not everything goes as planned. My parents were helping my sister move into college at the University of Virginia, so I was at the Jesuit football game with a babysitter. At one point, my water bottle fell onto the track, so I jumped over the fence that separates the stands from the field in order to grab it. I didn’t perceive it as a big deal, for I had jumped over that same fence multiple times that game alone. However, at that exact moment I happened to be standing at a point where the fence was poorly patched; so, as I jumped, my foot barely caught the edge of it. I fell awkwardly and landed on my side. Embarrassed, I very quickly hopped
As a freshman in high school I woke up every morning before all of my fellow classmates and came to school an hour early. But I didn’t mind, because now I was apart of the Broadcasting Team. I didn’t mind waking up earlier because being there made me feel more awake than ever before. My early morning dedication persisted, all four years of high school. The rush of adrenaline after running my first broadcast has continued to drive my desire to learn all aspects of broadcasting. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I will graduate college and then work toward “running the board” for a major news
Transitioning from junior high to high school for a 14 year old is just short of “peeing your pants” worthy. It’s exciting yet terrifying all at the same time. You realize you will be attending school with so many new people and you have to entirely memorize a new maze of hallways and meet with new teachers, it can be overwhelming. Especially for me, I came from a class of 31 students at a private school, most of which I’ve gone to school with since Kindergarten. In my class of 31 students, there were 3 African Americans and 2 Mexicans, everyone else was Caucasian. Now I wouldn’t consider myself racist at all, more like “innocently unaware” of the vast majority of different ethnicities and races. My ignorance was not out of spite, but from my lack of experience, and to have such a lack of cultural diversity up until you are a
It was a steaming summer day while I was warming up in the in the bullpen. It was summer 2016, and this was my 1st high school baseball game. I was throwing with Grant Talley to warm-up. He was one of the two catchers on our team. After about 15 warm-up pitches, it was time to take the field with my teammates. I had a jittery feeling in my stomach while the coaches were talking to us, before we took the field.
My transition into high school was as easy as taking a breath. I had always found school quiet easy and I never had to put much effort into getting promising grades. Before high school I had my whole life figured out, or at least I thought I did. I had planned that I would attend a law school or major in English. After a while of being in high school I started to realize many things. My parents did not have the financial stability to send me to a law school, I was not as smart as all the other kids, little by little I began struggling with a negative mentality about myself and my future. I slowly let go of my dream of becoming a lawyer and decided to join the Health Careers Academy. Soon enough, I began to have a deep interest in the medical field but then again I continued to have the same question; how can I afford going to a medical school? I did not know much about college or what it took to get into college. I assumed I just had to have a pretty transcript and that was all it took. My self confidence began to lower as I saw how other students cruised through their high school years so effortlessly. I never wanted to ask for help because I did not want to seem “dumb”. I would bite my tongue and hold in all the unanswered questions I had. My junior year, I was having a very difficult time. I had a tight schedule which consisted of almost all AP or honors courses. I slowly began to give up because I did not believe that I could do it. I let my grades slip failing almost
Coming into high school, I was kind of nervous. I was only nervous because I am so little and I knew there were going to be so many taller and older people here with me. I had my mom go buy me everything new but she did not want to take me to the hair shop to get my hair done. She wanted to do it herself; I was not having that. I felt that since I was in high school my hair should be done by someone at the shop every week.
“Okay class, today we will have time to work with a partner of your choice on the assignment I’ll be handing out.” I groan every time I hear this from a teacher because I look around the class and see the glances people give each other, signaling them to work with them, but I never seem to have anyone give me that signal. One house after another, it grew to be the norm for our family. Move into one house, stay for a year, pack up and move onto the next one. With every move, the more vulnerable I became. It was silly of me back then to make a ton of friends only to be heartbroken when I was told we were moving after the school year ended. I was the new kid every year, and every year it got harder to make new friends.
There came a time in my life when reality hit me like a bus. It was the day I got my first high school transcript, and I was very anxious to see what it was all about. I was shocked to find out that a cheerleader who I knew wasn't that brilliant, was beating me in rank.