Future

Have you ever made a mistake that could have cost you your future? Well I know I have, I’ve made many mistakes in my life that have shaped the person I am now. Sometimes those mistakes make life a lot more challenging but sometimes it can be for the better, so you can grow and learn from them. All through high school, I’ve made many mistakes that have led to the person I am now including almost not being able to graduate but they made me grow up and learn that I need to get my act together so that I don’t get myself in the situation I used to be in. Growing up everyone makes mistakes that help us grow and helps us make better choices in the future, whether it be right away or years later. Most of the time you realize quickly not to make the same mistake twice but sometimes you make the same mistake over and over until it screws you in the end.

Throughout high school, I made a big mistake that almost cost me a major part of my future. I decided that high school wasn’t going to be my priority for the past 3 years. It started freshman year when I decided that my friends and my phone were more important than focusing on my classes. Then when covid hit it made things worse for my part, I only had to show up to class to pass which didn’t help me realize that doing the actual school work was important. I figured that after that I could just continue doing that all through the sophomore year until I realized that not doing the work wasn’t helping me and that it actually mattered to my grades. School still wasn’t my priority because I still valued being around my friends more than I did my school work, so when I had the chance to talk to my friends I would take it. I would go hang out with my friends and forget about all of the school work that I still had to do, but I still wasn’t worried because to me it didn’t matter and it wouldn’t affect me in the end. When I didn’t pass two of my classes sophomore year it didn’t bother me because I thought that I could easily make it up in the upcoming years which I later found out wasn’t that easy. When I ended my sophomore year I still hadn’t figured out how big of a mistake I was making over not doing my school work. When my junior year started everything took a major turn, I had lost almost all of my friends and didn’t want to come to school because I didn’t want to see anyone. Which took a major toll on my grades and my attendance, I still hadn’t really been thinking about the consequences of not being in school and passing. I just thought oh well it won’t matter in the end anyway, which I was very wrong because when I had failed all but one class in the first semester of my junior year I started to understand there won’t be enough time to do all of it without a lot of help. Then when the second semester came I ended up getting a severe concussion which prevented me from being able to be on a laptop or any electronics for a long amount of time, which then took a major toll on my grades and passing. By the end of my junior year I had no choice but to go to summer school or I would have no choice but to go into alternative education, which kind of just flipped a switch in me that if I wanted to go to the colleges I had been thinking of I wouldn’t be able to go into alternative. I realized the mistake I had made was tremendous, and that I needed to change something or I would be screwed. I went to summer school and did all of the work I needed to do to be able to go into my senior year without needing to go into alternative.

Now that I have the right mindset I have gotten into every college I have applied to and am starting to understand the importance of passing and being in school. I am where I want to be and I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve made and want to be able to graduate on time and have good grades to prove how much I’ve grown up and learned from my mistakes.

“Gettysburg College 30” by Gettysburg College is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.