9-12 Reflection

In the beginning, high school was pretty much a breeze. When I was a freshman, I was afraid of the seniors because they were huge and they all looked so much older, which is sort of odd now because I don’t think our class looks as old as I thought their class did. In the first few years, I didn’t really do much outside of school aside from religion classes at St. John’s, so I mostly focused on school and keeping my grades up. Even at that time, the most important thing to me was getting into a good college so I could have a successful future. Looking back, I wish I’d put myself out there more and got more involved in clubs and sports. My freshman year I wanted to try out for the Rifle Team, and I almost did, but when I went to the meeting, I saw how many people were trying out and I didn’t even show up to the tryouts because I didn’t think I would make it. I regretted that for a long time. Then in 10^th grade, knowing how bad it felt after I chickened out, I decided to go for it and to my surprise, I made the team. I’ll always wish I’d been brave enough to go to the tryouts the first time. I wonder how much more successful I would’ve been as an upperclassman if I had. Regardless, the three years I did spend on the team were some of the best memories I’ll have of high school. That regret that I felt was one of the reasons I pushed myself to join the Track and Field Team in 11^th grade. I told myself I’d never know how good I was if I didn’t try. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way the Rifle Team did. I threw shotput and discus on the team, but I was absolutely terrible, so I didn’t return for my senior year. I’m glad that I at least tried it, though. In terms of academics, I got good grades in pretty much everything, but for the first time, I had to actually work for some of my grades. Classes like Pre-Calc and Chemistry really pushed me, and it was hard to teach myself how to study because It was all new to me. My favorite classes were the ones like Health with Mr. Casillo, Psych and Soc with Mr. Cayea, and English 12 with Mr. Currin, where the teacher didn’t just talk at us for 80 minutes. Consequently, those were some of the classes in which I received the highest grades. Senior year was by far the best. I’ve formed countless relationships with people who I hope will be lifelong friends of mine. But I’m ready to move on to the bigger, more exciting adventures that college will bring.