My school is an interesting place. It was an alternative school of a sorts. It is different from a traditional high school in the sense that it’s school curriculum has college classes built into it. It also has a much smaller student population, so it is easier to form stronger bonds with more people.
Before I came to this school, I was an extremely lazy person. I would procrastinate on everything, and all I would care about would be to finish my work as fast as possible so i can go play games or go on Facebook. I would never think about the work that I did nor the quality of work that I would hand it to the teachers just to get credit. After I went to ASTI however, that all had to change. I could not just procrastinate and do my work last minute. Now the teachers looked at the quality and quantity of work that was turned in, not just the quantity. I had to up the standards of my work and do all my work in a consistent timing or else I would not keep up with the work load.
Since this school was an early college high school that had college classes for he upperclassmen years, they did not offer a choice for an elective class. Instead, you had to take a Writing class, which was supposed to improve your writing skills and to bring them up to College Writing Levels. I was woefully unprepared for that class. For my freshman English class, it was practically a free A. There were not many assignments in the class, and to get an A on the assignments, all you had to do was turn something in that looked moderately like you followed the rules and instructions. There was literally only 1 or 2 people who had lower than A’s in my Freshman English class. When I went into the class, I went in thinking that I would ace everything that went in my way, after all, I had gotten an A in the last English class right? Oh how wrong I was.
Her writing class was hard, there was no doubt about it. There was nothing that I did before that prepared me for it. I had to change my style of writing, and to improve on the vocabulary, the integration of quotes, the redundancy, almost every aspect of writing. The sudden shock dropped my A grade down to the C grade the first semester. I was crushed. Never before have I gotten such a low grade. However using the things that I had learned the first semester, I improved on my writing and managed to raise it to a high B the next semester. I had to work on losing my procrastination and developing better work habits and writing skills.
Through the school, I met a lot of people who are very focused on their futures and know either what they want to be, or have a general idea in the field that they want to work in in their adult life. For example, David, who has already decided to go into the medical field, and be either a doctor or a pharmacist, and Vincent, who is aiming to be a lawyer.
Before, I was unmotivated and I did not have many goals in life, nor did I have many ideas about where I was headed in life. have heard about my classmates wishes for going to schools that were related to the field that they wanted to major in, and their wishes for their futures, such as what jobs that they have wanted to get. Their dreams and aspirations have rubbed off of me, and now I feel more confident in my life’s goals. I actually have dreams and aspirations now, I want to get into the science and medical field. After hearing my classmates discuss their futures and the confidence that they have in themselves to succeed in life, I now have a lot more confidence in myself to succeed in life and to overcome whatever obstacles appear in my path to my future.
There are many things that I have done throughout my high school career that are important to me. I have been part of an after school program that has helped me develop as a an individual. It was a program called McCulum Youth Court. It was the first extracurricular activity that I was a part of that that actually made me feel as if i was part of something bigger. I felt as if I made a difference in my society, and that I was doing something important, instead of wasting my time on frivolous unneeded activities.
McCulum Youth Court is a program that practices restorative justice. It is a real court system that is recognized by the law. Every 2 weeks, we have a court night where we hear the cases of real youth who have committed crimes. Each court night, I have had to help strangers that are new to the program find their way through their program, and help them through the program every step of the court night.
Through this program, I have developed many skills necessary in life. I have had to improve my public speaking skills through phone calls that I have had to make for the program, and the things that I have had to say in the courtroom’s during court nights.
During court nights, I have to handle most of the youth and adults that go to our program. When the court night begins, I am the person that the judge always goes to for help when they need it, I am responsible for them doing their job correctly.
I am a more self-confident person now, I am not intimated by the new and the unknown. I my be apprehensive about what the future holds, but I will not be so intimidated that I will not move on.
Hey Sutherland, I'm Just adding a link to a different version that I wrote, can you tell me which one is better in the comments?
http://mycjapan.blogspot.com/2011/05/english-final-v2.html
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