The only thing that stopped me from crashing a car into my math/driver’s Ed teacher’s classroom was a tree. I have given at least ten different excuses for why and how I managed to hop the curb and damage both the family Honda and a birch tree while trying to park in the school lot. I was fifteen. My feet couldn’t really reach the pedals. I forgot which one was the brake and which one was the gas. They just get worse after those first few, but hey, it’s pretty embarrassing to admit that I just got cocky. That was two years ago and there’s still a sizable chunk of bark missing. I wince every time I walk by where it happened on my way to Human Anatomy. My friends have deemed the tree mine and are highly amused when I blush and stutter as they make me tell the story for the hundredth time. In the moment, it was end of the world. The embarrassment I felt was insurmountable. I sobbed and cursed in my Upper School Director’s arms. Then I cried harder when my mom came from her classroom to see why my least favorite teacher had called her over. I even waited an extra year to get my license because of my spar with the tree, but I got over it. The Earth continued spinning on its axis and I continued to live as I …show more content…
In order to really appreciate success, I have had to experience failure. I still remember the first time I got below a B on an assignment in fourth grade. Even then it made me work harder. The best thing high school has taught me is to take things as they come. Losing a YMCA soccer game where there’s no score isn’t enough to prepare someone for growing up and losing the innocent perspective of childhood. I always used to hear that being a teenager was messy and complicated. So far, I have not been disappointed. These have been the best messy and complicated years of my life, minor car crash and