Failure on the Road to Success

By Lex Cornell
 
Failure. That’s what I’ve heard my whole life, even when I gave it my all. When I started high school, I tried to give my all in my classes. It never felt like I could get ahead, particularly when I struggled in English class. I couldn’t grasp the concepts of my classes and my grades started to suffer. After hearing time and time again that I was a failure, I began to give up on school. I became the failure everyone said I was. By my sophomore year, I was several credits behind my peers, now that I no longer cared for how I did or had a plan for my future. Mid-year of my sophomore year, my life got flipped upside down. When CPS was in my life, I was removed from my household and moved in with my father’s ex-finance. Many changes happened during that time. I was out of school for a whole month until she could get my documents for me to go into high school. 
 
When it was all settled, I started up school again at East. It was a change from my old school. I got used to having time to do my assignments. The teachers here wouldn’t let me get behind. Changes from 8, 42-minute classes to 5, 72-minute classes were a hard adjustment. I wasn’t used to being able to finish my work. I was finishing my work. I was getting better grades and understanding what I was learning. I was two weeks into my new way of school when Covid hit. I tried my best with the online classes, but sometimes they didn’t work. Teachers were still trying to find ways to help their students. At the end of my sophomore year, I don’t think I did as well as I could have. I strived to do better through my junior and senior years.
 
Even with a global pandemic, I pushed forward and achieved high grades throughout my whole junior year. I’m a senior now. I’ve been ambitious. I’m taking multiple classes for my future career in Culinary Arts. I write for the school newspaper, and I have the highest grades out of all my years in high school so far. I’m ready for my next big step in life. I know that the changes from high school to college will be one of the most life-changing events to happen to me, I know that means there’s going to be more changes and things will be different from high school but, because of my situation, I believe I will be able to adapt to college life.