The trip through the public education system has been quite the adventure, ever so ranging from meeting unique people to trying to get through everyday. From the best days to the worst days, I made it through and now I know I’m ready to learn my job profession and live on my own. Ranging from all the extra technology electives that I took to give me the upper hand, to learning how to do my own laundry and cook my own meals in my home.
It’s feels like I have been wanting to move out for so long now, yet now I do know that I will never be perfectly prepared to support myself. I have to push myself to take the next step now, the only thing in my way is my own faults. Anywhere from being lazy, to not turning in anything when it should be due. Ironically I have yet to order my cap and gown, and not all of my college applications are in yet.
The best year my journey through school is tied between 8th grade and 11th grade. One on hand I am at the age of 14, the beginning of 8th grade at Bradley Middle School I did not have many friends and my last year was filled with me studying the curriculum. That all changed on about the third day of school when I met my now best friend Jakob Villareal, senior. I remember it being my second period [which was science for me] and we were discussing a comic made by the creator of Invader Zim. From then on we started talking more and playing video games after school. We complimented each other, bringing out sides of ourselves that normally can be called “geeky”.
It was a peaceful time back then, no worries of getting a job and completely absent was the constant reminder of college. Just that strange time in a teens life when your just about to be in high school and girls just happen to not be icky anymore. Going from being the big dogs of the school to a fish[freshman] in a bigger sea which we call high school.
Junior year in my opinion was the easiest time of all my years at school, no more foreign language and speech to top it off. Mrs. Michelle Watkins, speech and debate teacher, has to be one of the coolest teachers I have had. She was sarcastic and very real with all the students. The class caused me to break out of my quiet shell, not just the concept of talking to wide audience of students. I met my other best friend Charles Davies, who at the time was a senior. We would always have very loud discussions ranging from religion to the fictional province of Northern Ireland.
This was a creation between Charles, and seniorsChris Banks, Stephen Alvear, and I, in which the Irish moved to the moon, used potatoes as currency, and would fight the rake wielding forces of the Scots on the dark Side of the Moon. We created, photoshopped propaganda posters, pictures of these Irish astronauts, and the ever mysterious rake men.
It was also the year I realized what I wanted to as for a living, Radio and Television. Somehow junior year I had gotten into video announcements with Mr. Saucier. I learned how to work a camera, shoot footage, and edit said footage. I was always good with technology, yet I always wanted something more artistic and hands on. I finally found my calling, which caused me to join newspaper this year and meet all the wonderful people of my staff.
I also had rekindled my friendship with Jakob after some rough patches that both of us went through. We both were working that year, and started to hang out a lot more then usual. We could buy whatever we wanted and do almost whatever we felt. We invested money into learning paintball with a fellow staff member, junior Andy Guerra. I slimmed down and gained muscle mass that year; Andy is a good captain and a great friend. He taught Jakob and I many things that year.
The summer after junior year was also when Jakob teached me to longboard, even though I myself did not own one, he lent me his Santa Cruz cruising board. Yet again I had slimmed down, my balance was increased, and my leg muscle increased exponentially. I still am paying Jakob off in payments for his board. It truly is my little bleached baby. We have been through a lot, my board and I, same as how Jakob and I had been through a lot.
I will miss all my friends who I will scarcely see anymore. All the people I have grown up with, all the people who have molded and shaped my personality. I thank you, you have made this year a very personal one filled with changes of oneself. Olivia Suarez, editor and leader, has been a great influence on me. She has taught me well, and I believe I will now succeed in the world of televised journalism. Goodbye school, for now I am graduating, I will see you, my senior class, again in five years at our reunion.
