SOURCE: On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at approximately 1900 hours, I received a telephone call from Sgt. John Sanzone, who told me there was a drive by shooting that had just occurred. Sgt. Sanzone assigned me as the CSI lead on this case.
The moment I walked into this new small town school; I felt strained. I went from PS 60 in Queens to some place called Cocalico Middle school. I walked into my first day hoping I’d be indifferent, but feelings don’t work that way. The first thing I noticed was the lack of diversity; I noticed this when I was at school and then when I went to the local grocery store. I observed everything, but tried not to make myself noticed.
Flashback to my junior year. I sat quietly in my AP Lang class as my teacher, Mrs. Fisher, announced that the reading competition between the language arts classes called for the book count for September. She stood at the board, marker in hand, staring out expectantly at her large class. Hands shot up across the classroom, and my own nervous hand rose up to join them. Mrs. Fisher happily chalked up the small fortune of books that our class had read.
All my life, I was always told that I was so smart and advanced for my age. Everything came easy to me: math, writing, reading, sports, and even playing many instruments. All this came with little work. So I seldom ever had to study or practice for anything. This occurred all throughout elementary and middle school.
I’ve always wondered why people with a little or a lot of power tend to treat you unjustly. I’ve experienced many times when people with power treated me poorly. There were times in school with teachers, in school with principles and even out in public places. When I experienced these moments they made me feel like there were something wrong with me or I was different. Also, it made me feel like I was different from others… but not in a good way.
My body cried like a newborn babe, afraid in an unfamiliar place. Immediately, my fresh eyes were greeted by waves of black hair, friendly smiles, and the Japanese language. I had arrived in Japan. I did not know the language or the customs, but I dove right into the dark pool. I was determined not to let the unknown drown me.
Anyways how come you came to this school?” “Oh, well I was getting bullied at my old school and I really didn’t want to deal with it… you see my little brother is sick and I was having a really hard time making sure to take care of him, you know since my mom is never really around anymore.” My heart was ripped into two after hearing that, I felt so bad for this guy, I feel even worse that this school was not going to be different from his last
Middle School to High School In middle school, one thing that I thought of high school is that it wouldn’t be much different than middle school. I was told a lot of bad things about high school, people saying “just wait until you get to high school, everything gets a lot worse” or “you think it’s hard now? Just wait.” When I was in middle school, I was told as well as thought that high school wouldn’t be any different than middle school except for it being harder academic wise.
It started as an accident. I was thirteen and still do not remember what compelled me to download a virtual stock market app on my iPod touch. Maybe it was listening to my uncle speak about the trades he made with his stocks or maybe it was my interest in The Jim Cramer show on MSNBC. Now, with my new game downloaded, I ‘purchased’ some shares of well-known companies and forgot about the app for a couple of months until one day I opened it. I scrolled down to the last stock I had invested in.
I remember when I was going to start school. The school I went to was called Lincoln Elementary. It was just a short four streets down from my house. I was a little nervous and slightly scared to go. I didn’t want to have to leave home and be gone for so long.
My time at St. Xavier has been constructive and highly beneficial, however, I believe that it is the cave and that life after school is the light. The school does not accurately reflect the real world and it has three major illusions: that you must work for someone else, that learning should only be done in school, and that the world is not diverse. For the past four years, excluding summer, how I spend my time has been dictated largely by teachers. Monday through Friday for seven hours a day plus a few hours in the evening, I’ll be listening to whatever lecture has been planned out and completing whatever homework has been assigned.
Ever found a place so relaxing, so beautiful, and so inspiring that you never wanted to leave it? For the most of my life, I always dreamt of going to the beach because I never got a chance to go when I was younger. Even though I had never stepped one foot on a beach before, I still adored it so much. But for the first time in my life, I finally got the chance to experience how it feels to the beach, and it was everything I thought it would be like. The things that attracted me to the beach was the fact that it is so relaxing, the scenery is so beautiful, and it is a place to go and have fun.
It was 3:05 and there was only 55 minutes left until summer. I was waiting all day for school to get out. I was thinking of all the stuff i was going to do for summer. I was looking forward to swimming playing x box, football, and going to sandy pines. When I finally got home after a long day at school.
"How serious is it mom?" “Cancer is very serious.” "Will papa die?" “...” I did not know how to react, a mini panic attack was occurring inside my head. Since I was thirteen, I did not know much about cancer.
Everyone in high school looks forward to graduation day; however, I was not looking forward to it. I hate being in any form of spot light. For a lot of people, graduating from high school is a goal that took many years to achieve and they like to be acknowledged for it. Graduation marks the end of high school and the beginning of a new independent life for all. I asked my parents if I could skip the ceremony, but they made me walk with my class.
