As the end of my eighth grade year was rapidly approaching and becoming a high school freshman was coming to reality I had a lot of anxiety and curiosity that I wanted to know about high school. On January 25, 2012 I was getting out of school and I got the devastating news that my grandma at age 57, suddenly passed away. I couldn’t believe it, I was in shock just as well as my other family members were. The moment she passed away I knew that since such a beautiful person that had a huge impact on my life, that life would start changing.
As I entered my freshman year at East High School, my first year in high school I was filled with anxiety, edgy, and most of all not knowing what was about to happen. I entered my freshman year in a college prep program, Educational Talent Search. ETS offered after school tutoring, study halls, and other things to help me excel in my classes. I also took a couple honors classes such as Honors English and Honors World History. As the second semester had just began, I was struggling a little in my classes. On top of struggling in my classes I was dealing with a lot of personal things that had been going on in y life. My parents were going through a divorce, and it was effecting me really badly.
My grandpa had been immensely sick, being that his wife had passed away just the year before, his health had gone down. This was not the way I was expecting my freshman year to turn out. On February 17, 2013 at age 67, my grandfather ended his battle of cancer, on his wife birthday. Of course our family was devastated, but we knew he was in a better place. As far as my academics were going, I wasn’t doing very well in school. I still continued attending ETS trying my hardest to make sure my grades were where hey needed to be. However, my grades had gone down, and honestly I didn’t know what to do. Being that so much was going on outside of school and being stressed out about my grades my mind was everywhere.
I tried my best to end the second semester with good grades, but that didn’t happen as planned. When my freshman year ended, I didn’t feel good about myself. As my sophomore year was coming in, I made a goal for myself to achieve good grades the whole year and to also make the honor roll. The first semester of my sophomore year ended up going eally well, I achieved making the honor roll, I also maintained a B average in my classes. As Christmas break came upon me, my parents had been divorced and my dad had moved to New Orleans. For Christmas the plan was for me to go visit him and the rest of his family. On Christmas Eve in New Orleans, our family had received shocking news that my uncle was extremely sick and was not going to be able to make it for Christmas.
Of course my family was shocked not knowing really what was going on and what would happen with him. As Christmas day approached us my dad and his sisters had to end up Page 2 of 2 eaving to go see about their little brother. I was sad being that I had only spent a day or so with my dad and that my uncle was sick unexpectedly. Just entering 2014, on January 15, 2014 my uncle ended up passing away at age 40. My heart was broken being that my parents had divorced, and all of these people that had a significant impact on my life were gone. I knew that things had to get better at some point in my life. I wanted to not let all of these things affect me but, it was really badly. As my sophomore year ended, I did end up doing better than I did in my freshman year.
As my Junior year was coming faster than I expected I knew that I would do better in my academics. I made sure that | attended ETS every day after school to get my study skills back to where they needed to be. I ended up ending my junior year in a powerful way. I was really proud of how hard I worked for everything, I learned to put all of that behind me and to get ready for my future. I knew if I kept going down the path I was going that it wasn’t going to benefit me in any way. During all of these major tragedies, I made sure I still went to school I was involved in my school, community service opportunities, beneficial activities that I knew would pay off in the end.
I started participating in my high school’s Student Government to keep me busy. I also participated in a college preparatory summer academy, Upward Bound. In Upward Bound we did a lot of group activities, having a more insight about college, and community service opportunities. This summer academy helped strengthen me in my social skills, group working skills, and most of all opening my mind more to college. I also participated in a leadership program, the Points of Light Youth Leadership Institute.
This program opened my opportunities to more community service activities and most of all to help me strengthen my leadership skills. After completing the program, I ended up returning as a Graduate Assistant the next year. As a graduate assistant I helped other participants understand how the program works and how fundamental it is. Another college prep program that | participated in was, Educational Talent Search. ETS is a program to help students prepare for college, strengthen study skills, and tutoring opportunities. All of these activities that I have participated in have