A Second Chance by Jennifer Watkins

When I first came to Cedar Shoals, I was scared to tell you the truth. I really didn’t care what people said about me or what they thought. I was worried abut what classroom I was going to be in, or was the ninth grade going to be mixed up, or who I am going to eat lunch with, because I didn’t now anyone. I was the quiet type. I got caught up with the wrong clique and started doing what they were doing to look cool. I would be late to class. I realized that wasn’t right way to go. I decided to stop and do my work. My parents had to talk to me and my sister had to talk me about doing the right thing and being a leader not a follower. I thought that high school was going to be easier, but I thought wrong. It was harder than I thought. I had everything planned. I was going to graduate high school and go off to the Army Reserve.

I remember my freshman year like it was yesterday. First block I had Mr. Hedrick; he was my pre-algebra teacher. Second block, Ms.Vergiae, she taught physical science. Third block was lit/comp 9 with Mr. Moore, and fourth block was JROTC with Major Evans. Out of all four classes, I only passed three. I remember telling myself that was not so good. Actually, I thought that it was very poor of me to fail that class. My whole 10th grade year, I only passed five classes. I knew I wasn’t going to pass the grade, but I thought it was good enough that I did get five out 8 credits. Little did I know that it would come back to haunt me and make it impossible to graduate.

I was one of the most liked students in the counselor office. Mr. Jones took good care of me by keeping me on track. He told me what classes I needed to take to go to my next grade, in order to be caught up with my class of 2010. So everyday I went to his personal office to talk to him about my credits and grades and how I could make it on time. We played a game called kick-up. He told me to go to Classic City for a 5th block called credit re-cover where you do the subject you failed on internet. So I did, and yes I passed all six of my classes at the end of June. Now I’m in my right grade which is 12th grade. Now I’m only missing one class, but am going to graduate at Classic City High School for 2010 with 22 credits. You get the same high school diploma as any other high school, just less credits. I graduate on May 18, one day before Cedar Shoals students graduate.

What I have learned from this experience is that your freshman year you do not want to mess up your first time. If you do, you will be just like one the people who failed a grade. You will feel bad and start to want to drop. My advice is for you to do the right thing, choose the right friends, and do your best at what you do all the time. You won’t regret this. Just be more that what your parents are.