My High School Experience

I walk into a new place where I have never been before trying to find where i’m going next. I struggle to look for my friends in a commons area full of people. It doesn't help that my eyesight is very poor. I start walking straight into the commons in hopes to find someone. I finally find a group full of familiar people who had graduated two years ago from the school I went to. I go up to them and ask them where my classes are, if i have good teachers, and if anybody has the same classes that i do. Unfortunately none of them did but as i spot my better friends i say goodbye and head away from them. I walk up to my best friends alec and tyler they tell me “Gracie there's nothing to worry about, its college!” I figure that they are right but that doesn’t change the fact that it was only my first day and i had no idea who anybody was here. I was scared, i knew it was going to be way harder than high school. Both alec and tyler say they have the first class with me and it was 15 minutes to but they joked with me and said that it's almost mandatory to show up at least 5 minutes late to a college class. So of course it also made me nervous that they were going to be late to class. I had thought about all the times i got threatened for my attendance at the high school and how the teachers would make you go to ISS for the whole hour if you were even a minute late. I had millions of thoughts running through my head, who am i going to sit by? What if the teacher yells that we are

Many people think that I’ve got everything going for me. I’m captain of my school’s varsity cheerleading squad, I’m an honors student, I’ve got a talent that works for me, and I’ve got a bright future ahead of me. Few people understand that getting to where I am hasn’t been easy.

For many people change is full of stressful and not welcome. Not a lot of people handle change well. It’s difficult to make changes when you are uncertain of what you want to be doing. Life is full of changes that are big and small. Some changes are taken solely by yourself, and others with a group of family or friends. Life is very dynamic and it always will be.

Lately I’ve been having a lot of small, reflective moments when life calms into a soft, background noise. I keep remembering things that I never thought could be forgotten in the first place. I’m still a senior in high school and nostalgia, coupled with intense anxiety for the future, leads to these memories resurfacing. Some are silly or fun, and others are overwhelmingly emotional. Particularly, the night where I decided to keep living and moving forward. I truly am who I am today because of a heartfelt conversation in the middle of a country field.

My mom and I were driving home from my club volleyball practice when I broke down in tears due to stress. High school class registration was coming up and I still had no idea whether or not I wanted to do band or volleyball in high school. Being a 14 year old in 8th grade, I never thought that I would have to make such a colossal decision that would affect my life forever. I only had 2 more days to decide how I would present myself in the new world of high school popularity, and I had no idea whether I would choose the life of athletics or musical talents.

Currently, my academic journey has been filled with very difficult trials and tests of my resilience. During high school, I was not very motivated or responsible when it came to academics. I did not believe in my intellectual capabilities and did not consider college as an option for me. None of my friends or family had been to college; so I did not see it as a likely avenue for me as well. In my experience, graduating high school was a major accomplishment within my family and nothing more was expected of you. After graduation, I realized that I did not want to work at my physically intensive job anymore and discovered I should work with my brain instead of my back. Consequently, I enrolled at the local community college and took a full schedule. It was difficult, because I had very little guidance and had to figure everything out on my own. I had to motivate myself continue and not become despaired or frustrated by being unfamiliar with the process. I had to re-learn how to manage my time and study efficiently, since I worked full time and had to fit everything into a tight schedule. With the help of some very intelligent and caring professors, I found my academic potential and learned the necessary skills to compete in a university setting. Eventually, I received my Associate of Arts degree and immediately transferred to The University of Colorado Denver.

My high school experience has been anything but average. I attend Plymouth Canton Educational Park, a campus of 6,300 students from three different high schools all coexisting and learning together. This environment has shaped me into who I am today. It has taught me the true meaning of friendship and teamwork, the importance of time management, and pursuing what I am passionate about. I believe these experiences have thoroughly prepared me for the college experience ahead.

When I entered ninth grade, I was someone totally different from the person I am today. The experiences I have gained during these long four years of high school have shaped me into the young adult I am. I have had to learn many lessons about myself and friends. Many failures have had to be taken in stride, and I am glad to say that I overcome and dealt with them all in the name of evolution.

Like every Saturday morning in the spring, I found myself cramped up in the backseat of a car at an ungodly hour. With swim season ending today with the All-Star meet however, this would be the last time this year that I would have to worry about this specific discomfort, then I could focus on other 5-year-old things like my upcoming birthday. Until then, I’d have to ‘deal with it,’ something nobody my age ever wants to hear. Luckily for me, I fell asleep within a few minutes and didn’t have to endure the rest of the trip to Beaumont High School.

Maybe it was the thought of what people felt about me, or the way I felt their glare on my back as I walked past a group of people. It could also have been the way that people stopped talking as I got closer to them and all that gave them away was the accusatory look in their eyes. The tables had turned suddenly letting me with no choice but to experience the way that other half lived. Living as a socially awkward student was difficult, but living amidst all the flying rumors was close to impossible. That fall was a life lesson that made me appreciate the friends I had and humbling me to see past the materialism that existed in the school to the vanity of it all.

I live in a small town named Tawau in the Malaysian state of Sabah but I spent most of my high school years in the state capital – Kota Kinabalu (KK). My high school experience had been a total mess. Partly because my family moved from one city after another and partly because all three of my high school practices the same kind of education system.

Freshman year was a year that opened my eyes to the reality of what high school really was. As a young, naive eighth grader I painted my freshman year as a year of wonder and adventure; kind of like those Disney movies that I grew up on that depicted high school as some sort of fantasy. Eventually, my mindset changed as I was thrust into this tiresome atmosphere full of people who loved to crack jokes, talk constantly in class about nothing pertaining to the class itself and always asking you for the homework. By my second week of freshman year, I

On the last day of a two-week summer class, I walked down hallways that were still unfamiliar to me, in a school I didn’t know. The previous year, in ninth grade, I went to a quiet online school, and I planned on going there again. Attending this school, PLHS, was always an option, but I kept thinking it would be to much to handle. Except now, after spending some time in a real classroom, I thought about how I actually wanted to experience more aspects of high school than a computer screen. My supportive family told me I could transfer schools if I really wanted, and even though I knew it would probably be overwhelming, a few months later, I was enrolled in PLHS.

My first semester of college was preceded by doubts and anxiety, filled with opportunities and experiences, and followed by anticipation. This semester has been a amazing initial introduction into college life, I met some great people, got a job I like, attended a leadership retreat, got a internship, learned a lot, won tons of free stuff, gained independence, and maintained a high GPA. However, the best experience of this semester was finally accepting and enjoying the decision I made to attend UT Dallas. I remember during the Global Leadership Retreat we all decided to go down to the lake, and we sat on the pier in silence just being present and enjoying the opportunity. Lake Travis is a staple of my hometown of Austin, and I have never gotten to chance to sit back and enjoy it. This juxtaposition affirming that perhaps, for the time, this is where I am supposed to be. It was not just this one event in particular but rather a culminating sigh of relief when realizing that I made the right decision, I deserve to be here, and I a strong student.

High school is said to be the best years of your life. High school is really what you make of it. Along the way you will be able to make new friends. In high school you will also be able to tell who is there to stick by your side . I learned that my 12th grade year when a group of my friends were all at lunch. We were all enjoying ourselves simply because graduation was soon approaching. We was all having fun until I started walking and broke a bone in my foot by stepping into a covered hole. I was the playful one in the group so no one believed me. Everyone left me when the bell rung except my best friend. She stood by my side until we received help from a nurse. The pain was so overbearing to the point to where tears fell down my face endlessly. Toni never saw me cry because of pain, so she started crying too. That was my worst day of my senior year, but I had a great person pushing me until the end. That was the day I found out who my real friend were.