One of the most important decisions I’ve made was choosing which high school to go to. It started out as a whim, but it ended up becoming my last hope.
When I was 13, I moved to Colorado the summer before starting 8th grade. Shortly after, I happened to overhear some kids in my new neighborhood talking about how they were going to Frederick High School, so I assumed that was the only school nearby, and that was where I would end up too. It wasn’t exactly a concrete decision, but it was something that I had readily accepted as a fact. I later learned that I was actually supposed to go to another school in the district, but I remained resolute.
When the school year began, I entered 8th grade at a local K-8 charter school. Moving to a new school is hard for anybody, but going into a smaller school with social anxiety disorder felt like a death sentence. Everyone there had been with each other for years, and on top of that, I had
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Even though I had been having reservations about choosing Frederick, I realized it would be a chance for a clean slate. Despite my initial reasoning being arbitrary, I stubbornly insisted that I would go to Frederick, saying that it made more sense to go to the closest school, that it had all the academic resources I needed, and even if I couldn’t take a bus, I would soon be old enough to drive myself. I would have done anything to be able to start over.
Although I refused to change my mind, I had my share of doubts. What if things didn’t get better? I didn’t know what I’d do then, and I was terrified.
The first day of school, I made a group of friends that I stuck with all four years. For three years, I was a varsity member of the debate team. Just this year, I graduated as the valedictorian. I’ll never know if I would have succeeded at the other school, but I don’t regret my decision in the