I want to start off this speech with the one quote that keeps me moving forward and has kept me motivated through high school. Michael Jordan once said, “If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. ” This is what pushed me to where I am today, and what I thought about graduation. Coming into high I thought it was going to be a scary experience.
All the classic rumors of older kids throwing you in lockers, nd treating the freshman bad was all that went through my head as I approached 9th grade. I was worried about the fact that I was going to do freshman year in my first private school ever. I never wanted to go to a private school because of the whole uniform thing, and thought kids from my old school would make fun of me. I was never really the kid that wore shoes and dressed up a lot, but of course I had no choice because that’s where my parents wanted me to go. They wanted me to get a good education and be surrounded by kids of different ethnicity since college would be the same.
They wanted me to be challenged as much as possible. My parents always wanted the best for me and I love them for that. At the beginning 9th grade, I was really shy and afraid because I knew I was going to a new school where I didn’t know anyone. Making new friends and meeting new people wasn’t really the type of person I was. I was always the kid that would sit by himself, doing their work or eating their lunch alone until someone came over to talk to me. As that year went on I began to make friends and started opening up a little more. I’m always the type to try and fit in with the popular crowd.
I hate to always stand out or have people talk about me. When I was in private school I wasn’t really worried about that since everyone looked the same with the uniform. It was just all about how you portrayed yourself to others and that’s how they would judge you. I played a lot of sports in middle school and am generally a very athletic person. However, in 9th grade I was too afraid, so I only played lacrosse. I wasn’t allowed to play basketball that year, because my grades weren’t where they were supposed to be. My parents said,”School comes first, and if your grades are not up then you won’t be able to play sports. Even though the year seemed like it went slowly, it was an okay year. 10th grade year I knew was my year to do everything.
This is the year where I changed the most. The people I hang out with in 9th grade were totally different from the people I hung out with in 10th grade. This was the year I played all the sports I played and met people that I knew would be my friends for a long time. After playing basketball I was well known and a lot of people knew who I was. It was a good feeling because I thought I would be that kid that no one really noticed.
This was also the year that I had my first high school relationship and really liked this one girl which I now hate with a passion now. It’s really funny how things like feelings can go from love to hate so quickly. This was also the year that my parents had a hard time paying for this annoying tuition. They said that I couldn’t take my finals or regents if I didn’t pay the tuition. My mom wasn’t able to pay the bill every month so of course like all bills, the price increased as time ent on and she wasn’t able to pay it. She ended up owing the school a lot of money which was forced to have me go to a different school.
I really didn’t want to leave because as I said this was the year I changed and I opened up and became a changed person. I got used to the school and was friends with a lot of good people. Knowing that I didn’t have enough money to pay the school made me feel like I barely had money. My mom got laid off from her job and unfortunately wasn’t able to pay the schools tuition for me. Many people wanted to know why I left the school. I really didn’t want to tell them because I didn’t want them to make assumptions of how I live and the amount of money I had.
So I told them in the easiest way I can and told them that the schools tuition was just too much for me and I had no more money to give them. Because my mom didn’t want me to leave the school, she tried to make any type of payment arrangement with the school but there was no other option. The only thing I had in my head was I didn’t want to go to Hempstead high school because I really hated the school even though I never been there. I knew the kids around the neighborhood went to the school and just by the way they carried themselves made me make assumptions about how the school is.
So after I couldn’t make another payment arrangement, my other option was to go to Uniondale high school because I originally came from Uniondale public school so that’s where all my friends were. But the only problem was that I had to try and use someone’s address because I live in Hempstead. But I couldn’t find anyone’s address so unfortunately I had to come to Hempstead high school which was the very last option, and I hated the act that I had to go here because I know this school is horrible. I entered this school in October in my 11th grade year. I started as the same as person as I was from 9th grade.
The shy person that barely talk to anyone. I didn’t know anyone besides my three cousins that go here. Other than that I had to start all over again and make new friends with people that I said I don’t like. I made friends with a couple of people that actually seem like that we’re cool people. I could care less about all the other people because I knew I wasn’t going to associate myself with them. 1the grade I dedicated myself all t my grades and didn’t worry about sports even though that was the year that coaches from colleges start to get a look at you.
But I also knew that 11th grade is where colleges tend to pay the most attention to and in I knew I had to get my grades up and do well on the SAT. I took 11th grade seriously and took advantage of the education at public school level. I always stayed on the honor roll knowing I had to make my parents proud because they was always on top of me when it came down to my overall average and my class grades. By 12th grade year I just played one sport and it was basketball. The sport that I loved to play no matter what.
But playing basketball at Hempstead high school was the worst. At times I felt like I just wanted to quit between the coaches and the team just made me frustrated. The amount of favoritism made things so much harder for me being that it was the first time the coaches seem me play. By this year all I really wanted to do was graduate at the top of my class and get out of there being that I really didn’t like the school. I didn’t participate in any of the school activities and kept on moving on throughout the year just focusing on my school work.
I barely knew people in my graduating class, but as people say this might have been the worst graduating class ever. Every day as I wake up or sit in school, I wish I was in my old school with all my friends and graduating with them. As of right now I’m focusing on getting this advanced regents diploma and passing my Trig and physics regents. Then after that is all over I will be graduating from this boring school in June. Just thinking about leaving this school makes me really happy. Goodbye to you all and wish you luck in your future.
