...Sophomore year in high school, was my first year participating in UIL Academics, a decision that I will always look back as one of the best that I have made, because of the great and challenging experience and the team mates that I grew fond of. I chose to try out for the Social Studies team, with the persuasion of my best friend, a current member, there was a total of four of us on the team, one of the four being someone that became someone very special to me. We all spent a lot of time together studying for upcoming meets, all leading to be ultimately prepared for District, Regionals, and State. Hours and hours of interacting with one another, bonds grew and long lasting friendships were made. We learned more and more of each other as each...
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...Since my Sophomore year, I volunteer to sort papers for my former Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Catherine Worden, someone unaffiliated with my intended major and my intended course in life, for three days a week, four weeks per month, eight months per year. This seemly trivial act of kindness can be explained by two universal truths. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” - Plato The battle she fights is uphill. Mrs. Worden diligently works nonstop, grading assignments and helping students from the crack of dawn to the fall of dusk, yet for all of this stress, she doesn’t stop. She eccentrically devotes time towards teaching chemistry in an exhilarating and memorable manner. This is my way of showing appreciation. Some may...
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...It was freshmen year and the school was about to end and I was failing most of my classes. I didn't really think freshmen year was a big deal so i didn't take it seriously. Late sophomore year is when i started to realize that i screwed up really bad and it was gonna be a rough road for me. I was on track to graduate because of all the credits i had lost during freshmen and sophomore year. Freshmen year first and second semester I failed like 4 classes and this happen because I wouldn’t show up for class. I wouldn’t do the work and I would never ask for help or ask questions if I didn’t understand something. Sophomore year was the same as freshmen year but sophomore year I had this class called ATL. This class we had to do a MYP project because it was a requirement for me to graduate. I didn’t do the the project. We also had a second project for second semester but i forgot what it called and I didn’t do that one either which was a really bad for me because i would have to do them either way. It would have made more sense for me just to do it that year and get it over with that year....
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...Tenacity has played a key role in my academic and personal goals. Growing up, I realized from a young age that I had an undeniable passion for boxing. Ironically, my passion lead to the most difficult struggle I’ve ever faced. Unlike my fellow peers, I strayed away from the normal athletic pursuits and instead of representing a football uniform, I found myself in the gym with boxing gloves strapped to my wrists. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that like many contact sports, injury is always a possibility. My sophomore year, I was training six days a week, for multiple hours a day. Pushing myself at this extent led to a severe stress fracture in my right shoulder: my punching arm. The doctors advised me that this injury might inhibit me from ever fighting at my caliber again. I felt devastated and helpless to my injury and for days after hearing the news, I feel into a depression that felt inescapable. However, in a moment of epiphany and with the help of my loving and motivational coach, I decided not to be a victim; this was not the end of my dreams. In the months to come, I clawed my way through countless hours of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Eight months later, I found myself at the qualifiers of the US Junior Olympics. Six rounds of fighting later, I stood on the podium victorious. I will never forget the feeling I had that day, the day my dreams came...
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...Crisp, clean, dark, exhilarating, no place on earth…Who has the opportunity to skate under the northern lights on an ice covered pond with moose nearby guarding the forests? The peaceful serenity is challenged by aggressive play, yet complemented, by cooperation and teamwork. My most significant accomplishment: Senior year I was selected to play at a high level of hockey with the Aspen Junior Leafs. I quickly grasped the opportunity. It may mean a life’s dream, “D-1 hockey or who knows? I could go to the show.” That, alone, isn’t a significant accomplishment. I always dreamed of playing high school hockey. I lived the dream until my freshman year. I suffered a broken back while playing hockey in Vancouver which subsequently required surgery....
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...self-worth and I discovered my sense of identity. Although the road to achieve these things was never easy I still managed to obtain both. During my freshman year in high school I was struck with unbelieveable news; my mom and stepfather were going to get a divorce. When my mom told me it just seemed so unreal, I am so used to seeing divorce on TV but I never thought it would hit home. After I initially found out about the divorce I brushed it off and paid it no mind. It took a while for it to actually sink in and when it did, I couldn’t believe that my parents could do such a thing. My step-father was the only father figure in my life because my birth father wasn’t around. The idea of my parents getting a divorce was overwhelming emotionally. I began paying less and less attention to my school work. The divorce consumed me. I felt as if I was carrying the entire weight of the divorce on my shoulders. My step-sister stopped coming over and it was very hard,my whole family was being broken apart and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. My mom was trying her best to cope but she still remained strong it was tough seeing her in that frame of mind. My mom and step-father’s divorce lasted for a little over two years. By the end of my sophomore year I had already fallen far behind in school. I was failing four classes due to either lateness, missing, or incomplete assignments. In June I was told that I could no longer attend my high school...
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...ends meet. Over time he developed a strong work ethic from his father that not only applied in the field but also in the classroom. He states, I increased my hours at Santa Maria Window cleaners, working from six in the morning until midnight” (194). Even though the amount of hours he was working was dangerous he knew that he needed to work in order to help provide for his family since his older brother was not living with them anymore. Thought his whole life his obligation was work and then came school; however, Francisco never lost sight of succeeding and obtaining his goals. Secondly, the support of his teachers played a key role in him wanting to become a teacher and attending college. Miss bell, an English teacher during his sophomore year felt that Francisco’s writing showed promise and helped encourage him to read Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The book helped improve his writing and improve his essay grades. Even though his counselor had signed him up for carpentry classes and explained him the different vocational programs offered at his high school; however, Francisco quickly replied and explained...
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...I laid there on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. I had just gotten done with homework, and I wanted to enjoy some alone time in my room with nothing but the music coming out of my speakers. “Just some roughed up desperadoes; hanging tough through thick and thin…” The lyrics flowed out of the speakers and filled the whole room. I smiled, thinking about my own group of friends. We called ourselves the Nerd Swag Squad, but all we were was a bunch of nerds fighting through tough homework, teachers, and life. Everyone was told that Sophomore is year is the hardest year, but I didn’t feel like it was. In fact, to me, it was the funnest year. Laughing till we cried, texting for last minute homework dilemmas, and just sitting at a table with them. I closed my eyes, and let my mind taking a journey into memories past. *** Freshmen year was that...
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...to do what he says he’s going to every time well most of the time. My sophomore year I was a true child on the football field and in school. I would talk back to coaches and would not listen and be coachable if I could go back and try things his way at first instead of all the arguing I would. A then coach came into my life. He always talked about doing the little things right then everything else would fall in place. I didn’t believe a word of it then I start having trouble in the classroom and in the home coach hears about it and comes to me sits me down and we have a little talk. He is a very honest man and doesn’t sugar coat it. Tells me what I’m doing is wrong and I need to change my ways. I tell him I don’t know how he tells me the same thing about doing things right and being a little more accountable. Ask me to just try things his way and the worst thing that could happen is I end up right back where I was at that point which was not good. So I listen I start doing things the right way and make some better choices and my life starts to improve I star becoming a little bit of a leader myself. Next thing I know I end being a captain of the football team which I thought would never happen because of how I used to think. But when somebody you see every day doing the right thing long it kind of rubs off on you and makes you want to do the same. I’m someone who came in freshman year...
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...For the last three years my extracurricular life has been spent at practice with my local rowing team. I’ve always done a sport of some type. Most often it was soccer though my freshmen year of high school I decided to try out rowing. Within a month I had been given the position of coxswain for the freshmen eight, and along with it the task of controlling eight unruly freshmen boys and keeping a $30,000 racing shell from being damaged. My sophomore year I earned the coxswain position on my team’s top boat the Men’s Junior 8+. On that boat we went undefeated all season and brought the team their second national title. Junior year I once again earned the spot of coxswain on the top boat, which this time was the Med’s 1st Varsity 8. The job as a coxswain is fairly simple. My job is to act as a second coach, I am in charge of the boys who comprise my crew and it is my job to make sure they do their job to the best of their ability. At the same time every day at practice it is demanded of me that I behave in a mature and responsible manner. My experience on my rowing team has been truly defining, I learned things about myself I would have never known had I not joined the team. As a coxswain I have to behave as if I were a coach I must act maturely and responsibly. My ability to do so has earned me respect and the honor of commanding the fastest boats my team can field. Even through the worst of times in my life I have always had rowing as an escape. At crew I am stress free and without...
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...During my sophomore year of high school I decided to attend Trinity Lutheran Church, located in South Minneapolis, Minnesota. After only a few months of attending this church, my youth group decided to sign us up to help hand out information about our church along with boxes of food in one of the more poverty stricken and self-destructive neighborhoods in Minneapolis. We were working within our youth groups, going from one apartment building to another, handing out the boxes of food and praying for the families who allowed us to do so. It was about ten thirty at night when our group had only one last box that we were told to give away. I offered to give the last box; I walked down the hallway and knocked on the last door, but heard no response. I knocked on the door two or three more times before I noticed that the door had been opened just enough for someone to look through the crack at me. I started asking if anyone was home until finally the door slowly opened and I saw a little girl, she could not have been older than nine years old. She slowly came out form behind the door and stared up at me, I asked her if her parents were home, she just stared at me with a blank face. I tried to as her again but this time in Spanish, she looked up and shook her head no, again in Spanish I asked if anyone else was in the apartment right now, and she shook her head no once more. I was at a loss for words, so I knelt to the ground and reached my arms out towards her. I didn’t move but rather...
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...During my sophomore year, I became friends with a girl that I knew for a few years, yet never became close with before. We became friends and I went to her house almost every day. She began to drive me to and from school, take me with her to all of her family events, and I would do the same for her. We became best friends and could not go a day without talking to each other. Throughout my sophomore year, I had a new best friend that I thought would be there for me for awhile. By the end of the year, I had drifted away from old friends, and drifted towards this person. I had forgotten who had been there for me first and focused on the one person. By May of my sophomore year, the girl began to change. She changed plans at least once a...
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...ALLASO RANCH Do you have special talents about yourself or accomplishments in your life that have affected you and who you are in life? Many might not know that our special talents and accomplishments really show who we truly are. What most people don’t realize is that everything that we experience can affect us both positively and negatively; we can learn from every experience in life. In my life I have been blessed to accomplish many things,but there is one experience in particular that has impacted my life and many others around me. At the end of my sophomore year of high school I got my first job at a place called Allaso Ranch. It is an 1100 acre camp and retreat center that my church owns in East Texas. I applied for the job at the age of sixteen, and they hired me when the hiring age is actually eighteen. During my interview I was told that this job would be a lot of hard work, and they didn’t know how I would do at my young age. Due to several high recommendations, I received I was hired for the job. I am the youngest employee they have ever hired. Before my job began, I had to be trained and certified as a lifeguard. The beginning of the summer I started working as a lifeguard. Later I was then asked to lead paintball, which consisted of me remodeling our paintball course to make it more fun and safer for the students. A week later I was placed in charge of the mountain bikes, Followed by kitchen duty and food services to the students. After the campers ate, I...
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...making the varsity drill team my freshman year of high school I never wanted to try out again. My director persuaded me to try out for the varsity drill team when I became a sophomore by making me push myself harder, realizing` not everyone has this opportunity, and reminding me things that are worth doing don’t come easy. When I was a freshman in high school I took a dance one class as an elective, throughout the year I started losing interest in dancing as a result of not making the varsity drill team. Every day in class my director would remind us that all the dance techniques that we were practicing were going to help us become the dancers we needed to be in order to make the varsity drill...
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...especially someone who is growing in their early adulthood that is enduring college right this very moment. Approaching ones peak years of physical ability and health, a lot of references by older parents are always made to younger ones that back in their college days, they were at their prime. This is something that college students both recognize and also sometimes, embrace. Being an athlete all of my life, from toddlerhood all up until my current years as a college student, I can first hand say that being in great physical condition is something that pays off in many ways. Socially, mentally, and physically, I feel like I’ve never been this amazing at life in general and I believe that to be simply due to the time in my life as a young adult. For example; Socially, being a part of the “regulars” at the gym is enough to branch out ones social surroundings to a setting that puts them around many people that have similar interests as themselves. I believe college can be handled by two ways. Either a person can generally keep to themselves and learn by themselves, leaving their resources limited as well as general experience. Or, one can branch out of their comfort zone and surround themselves with multiple resources and new experiences through their own general interest. It is the second approach that guides me through this second year as a sophomore, and it seems to be working quite well. The counter part of college that everyone seems to forget about while they’re up here is...
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