High school is widely known to be a time during our adolescence when we gain a mass collection of life experiences and knowledge. Hardships and prosperity throughout my high school career have created the path to where I am today, and the lessons I’ve taken from these years are bound to prove useful for the rest of my life.
Identical to all newly enrolled freshmen, I was engulfed with feelings of anxiety, stress, and hope upon my start of high school. Unprepared for the challenges that awaited me, I enrolled myself in all PreAP classes. Towards the beginning of the school year, my previously sheltered life surfaced reality: I was informed of the troubles within my parent’s relationship, and that they would be getting a divorce. This was my first, true taste of the brutality of the real world, and I was completely blindsided. Because of the unfortunate complications of the divorce, I struggled to motivate myself enough to carry out simple daily tasks, such as socializing and keeping up with my schoolwork. My grades suffered severely, and because the school year had just recently started, I had minimal friends I felt comfortable communicating my emotions. Without the ability to focus at school, or even at my own home, I began digging my GPA into a deeper hole by refusing to drop any advanced-level classes. By the start of the second semester, I had broken down, releasing my reluctance of dropping into academic classes. From this experience, I began to understand how crucial grades truly were, and how I would spend the next 3 years fixing my GPA. I learned the same lesson everybody eventually learns: the key to life is to make use of the cards you’ve been dealt, not sulk about the ones you’ve received.
I spent the remaining of my freshman year, up until my junior year, recovering from the arduous experience I had faced. During that time, I began finding comfort in the computer I had built myself in 7th grade. I started to meet many new friends online and I became closer with many of my friends I knew from school. Playing video games and socializing with these newly founded friends provided me with an outlet where I felt that I could freely express myself. As a result, my passion for technology flourished. I started involving myself in any technology-related curriculum at school I could- AP Computer Science, Digital Art, and currently an introduction course to Cyber Security, where I aim to acquire my Security+ certification at the end of the year. Since I retired from my high school basketball career at the start of my junior year, I decided to start and be involved in some clubs at my school to pass the time and be more involved. I was ecstatic and extremely fortunate to welcome over 75 members, within the first several months of operation, to my newly created gaming club: Cinco Ranch eSports. It was a priceless experience where I expanded my knowledge in the fields of leadership, teamwork, and much more. I directed the team in online tournaments for different games, and I was able to meet many new people that I shared a strong passion with. Finding my true passion and meeting many new friends, whom I was fortunate enough to become close with, made my junior year of high school one of the most memorable years of my life.
Comparing the start of high school to my final moments, I’ve matured tremendously and have gained vast knowledge from the life lessons I’ve encountered. These past 4 years have provided an infrastructure for learning and understanding the world and additionally, how I truly want to live my life.