Personal Narrative: Panama Elementary School

The balloons are out, the flowers are in bloom, I smell summer. I smell a summer like no other. Not because the groundhog came out early this year, or because I was one year older, but because I was a graduate, from Gilkey International middle school (finally). Sophie comes up to me yelling, super excited for the night ahead, graduation. As we rehearse our ceremony, in our high inched heels and dainty fake eyelashes Charlie runs up behind us screaming in our ear jumping us out of our own skin.

When it comes to sports my family has many ties to Middletown High School South. In the Going as far back as the 1980’s when my Dad attended the same high school. He was a standout wrestler for the team and was given multiple scholarships to wrestle in college. My family name is everywhere within the trophy rooms and walls of Middletown South. I am the youngest of three children with two older sisters coming through high school before me.

We lived in the North Heights area of Amarillo, across the train tracks and I guess we would considered urban. Growing up in the 60’s we had neighborhood schools, I attended kindergarten at Miss Rosenberg’s Kindergarten, we graduated with white caps and gowns and I was really happy. She was a black woman with a Jewish sounding name, who was our leader who taught us the basic of learning. I attended North Heights Elementary School beginning in first through sixth grade Our high school, Carver High School was forced to close its doors to integrate and become a junior high school by the order the president of the United States. As I mentioned we had teachers that taught us, because they were like us, we didn’t experience a great deal of discipline

Then I went back to my first school I attended Malakoff elementry. My pass and last two years of emementry school was the best. Fourth grade comes and turned out to be a good year with the teachers I got and my friends I meet were awesome and good people.

When I was young, money was not a big deal when I asked for something. If I wanted it, I begged my mom to get it for me. I never understood why I was unable to get the new toy that just came out, or the new shoes that every girl was about to have on Monday morning when I walked through the doors of Gretna Middle School. The summer before I started middle school, I decided to join a volleyball team. Needless to say, I fell in love with the game and continually tried to better my performance.

The first week was relatively easy and I had no worries, but then the second week came along and changed my perspective of the class. The heavy amounts of math were not my favorite. I was sufficient in math, but this was more complex than any other math I had experienced before. I struggled on the first couple of quizzes and tests. I started to become discouraged with my capabilities.

For most of my life lived in Wisconsin. I graduated from Mahone middle school and had mostly A's and B's from my class. Most of my classes were not honors and it never appeared to me that I would go far in life. So when I enter Glen and Fike High school, everything changed dramatically in my academic.

As the days progress, there are always new adventures waiting each day. I constantly learn new skills, meet wonderful educators, volunteers, and most importantly, assist children who have the potential and enthusiasm to achieve different goals. My day started on a rainy, Monday morning, no different than any other Monday, so I thought. I traveled to Johns Island on this day; Angel Oak Elementary School happened to be my morning destination. When I arrived, I did not expect any additional duties, other than observing tutors and students throughout sessions.

In 7th grade, I transferred from Bryan Middle school to Visitation Catholic School and there was not enough room in the accelerated math program, which ultimately set me behind. In high school, I found myself bored in math and knew I needed to challenge myself, so I ended up setting up a meeting with the math department head and we discussed my options. Sophomore year, I ended up taking two math classes, which was not easy; double the test, quizzes and lessons! However, by taking two math classes, I was able to get myself into a higher math class which ultimately was my goal, and achieving it was an amazing feeling.

There it was, standing in the distance, a tall gloomy gray-colored building. With a few splashes of blue paint added to the dull cement to add color to what would otherwise be a lifeless building. This building was non-other than the one and only Stoller Middle School. I never referred to it as a middle school but more as a prison, it was full of rules that were put in place just to suck away any possible fun from a child’s mind. Maybe I didn’t like the place because I was suspended five times from it.

After the first semester, then I started picking up with speech and asset but was not that much. I started taking the science class from the second semester. Some of the topics were okay to go with and some were hard and difficult.

Kindergarten through third grade I attended Rozelle Elementary school. The school had two different buildings, it was the kindergarten through second grade and then the third through sixth grade. I couldn 't This was my favorite school, I loved going here and the people here. My first day I probably cried, I really don 't remember.

It was new because I had to move in Euclid and had to go to Central Middle School. I didn’t know anybody and never been to Euclid city schools. As the sixth grade went by two days for me it felt like a comfortable school for me. As I started getting to know some new people we became friends but nothing like my friends I had with my other school. Things about that middle I like was that it had two basketballs gyms which I have never seen in a middle school before.

In 9th and 10th grade my studying habits were very poor and it showed tremendously on test and quizzes. 11th and 12th grade I took the initiative to learn how to study and not procrastinate. This was a challenge for me because test and quizzes took up the most percentage over classwork and homework which means one test or one quiz could drop your grade

They say that high school is not necessarily the best four years of your life, and I agree. However, I believe that it is a place for unique growth and development–both of which are factors in finding the best in ourselves. With all of this said, I can say that entering Miriam College High School has definitely and ultimately transformed me to become the intellectually and spiritually focused woman I am today. In my own journey, there are three stages in high school: the first few days, the bulk of the school year and the last few days.