School in The Fast Lane

Hi, as you guys may know, I am Heath. I may not be the best at speaking, but what you’re about to hear is coming from my heart and what is said has been my life so far. I grew up somewhat knowing my family, I was young when my parents had gotten divorced, I barely remember my childhood as far as early education and middle school but I do remember playing sports year round. Grade school consisted of baseball in the spring, and soccer during the fall, and basketball during the winter.

Middle school was new for me, not only had I moved schools from 6th to 7th grade, but I had also moved schools from District to District. I had originally come from Lewiston where I had most of my childhood friends. I fought through it and continued playing the same sports. 8th grade was interesting, I was going through the heat of puberty, and on top of all this my grandfather had passed away. As a result of this, I kinda fell into a depressive state where I fell out of the things I love, that year is also when I was kicked out of the GT program for English.

Freshman year: A new start, or so I thought. I still played sports. Don’t let anyone fool you, fall doubles suck. Freshman year consisted of a bunch of procrastination as I was still in the depressive state that I had back in Middle school. I passed all of my classes with ease with the exception of English, I passed Luchini’s by the literal skin of my teeth.

Sophomore Year: new year new me, right? Wrong. I fell back into the same drought I had the previous year, I did alright in my classes minus, you guessed it, English. I still played Soccer, although I was starting to lose my love for the game, I played hockey for the last time this year too. Spring consisted of no sports, unfortunately. Although, Guidance had this idea of bringing us over to Lewiston High School for an orientation of LRTC. We were told if we were interested in a program, to apply for it. I did, I fell in love with the automotive program over there. A couple of weeks pass by, and I get a letter from Guidance saying I was accepted into the Automotives program. The joy of the next few weeks left of school was euphoric. Mind you, at this point in school, I was still fighting myself mentally with depression.

Junior year: Fresh off summer break, my first day was automotives. I was excited as most incoming juniors were. I’ll tell you now, those first few weeks, are hell. All you would do is a bunch of safety training, which is understandable as you’re trusting 15 and 16-year-olds to fix people’s cars that are out driving on the streets. Junior year outside of LRTC was a living hell. I couldn’t focus on school, I barely passed the fall semester, and I watched my already somewhat low GPA plummet. Spring semester comes around and with that brought the testing for SkillsUSA. I didn’t end up going that year but I made myself a promise that I would senior year. Spring semester also included me failing English, not a surprise really. On top of that, instead of doing the smart thing and doing summer school, I, unfortunately, thought I was better than that and would just do it later. Worst. Decision. Of. My. Life. Don’t wait, if you fail, just do it in summer school, it’ll save you the headache of trying to do two English classes the next year.

Just before school started for senior year, I decided it would’ve been a smart idea to add on a college class to obtain my EMT license. Being an EMT has opened a whole other can of worms for me and it honestly changes my outlook on life too. I’ve learned to not judge a book by its cover, and I actually know what that means now. Continuing on with the Fall semester of Senior year, I made myself known in the auto class by putting 100% of effort into the class and it has honestly shown. I was told that I was selected for a competition that was for the top 2 people of the class, which my partner and I ended up placing 3rd out of the entire New England Area. Further continuing in this year, the same partner and I also qualified for SkillsUSA state finals. This is where my true colors finally shined and I placed 2nd in the state for automotive Technology.

Being so great in something also has its downsides, I somehow managed to become popular with the teachers, and the news as well, as I have had many pictures taken of me posted on Facebook, and just recently, WCSH6 did a news article about me. I tell you what, being “famous” sucks. I definitely don’t want to be popular and I never understand how people would like the cameras shoved in their face 24/7. If you don’t like popularity DON’T be like me. BE NORMAL! I beg you… Save yourself! Also… speaking of senior year, This is when I found out that cars saved my life, I am thankful to have gotten into cars as much as I have. I don’t know what would’ve happened without all the people that I’ve met and all the friends I’ve made. To those people, I thank you.

Photo on Foter.com