Northside

I went to Northside High School in War Town, USA. That is Warner Robins, GA for the non-locals. It was the same school that my mom, brother, and aunt all attended. We are the Eagles of blue and white. I lived a wild and crazy life in high school, and it took me my whole career at Northside to realize the importance of my education. I’d like to say that I lived my college life while I was still in high school.

High school “began to categorize students into different educational ‘tracks’ that offered qualitatively different kinds of education to different groups,” (Colombo, Cullen, and Lisle 138) and I was on the honors track. Contrary to popular belief, Honors students are some of the hardest partiers in school. I breezed through my freshman year, as far as academics were concerned, with the exception of English. It was in English class that I first met Satan. Satan came in the form of a walrus-shaped woman who went by the name of Ms. Michelle Mayo, who always threatened me and sent me out of class with no reason for doing so. Mayo was always saying things like “do this, don’t do that, tuck your shirt in, wipe that smile off your face, [or] where’s your hall pass” (Moore 159). That year, however, the seeds of partying were planted in my life. I started going over to my friend’s house and drinking every day after school. Her name was Heather and all we ever did at her house was get drunk. She was kind on the eyes with her beautiful body and dyed-blonde hair. My drinking was a problem, but nobody even noticed, especially with my stellar performance in school.

Sophomore year only had more problems. School quit being a breeze for me. At the same time, I was now staying out later than ever and my drinking continued. This time I had awesome teachers like Mrs. Campbell, Ms. Allen, and Ms. Wilson. They all tried to help me through my personal problems while still helping me learn in school. Mrs. Campbell was the most beneficial for me in the classroom. She showed me the value of hard work and that just getting by wasn’t always good enough. I should have listened to her back then. I met the love of my life, Jessica Taylor. I quit focusing on school all together and was just fully devoted to spending time with Jessica into late hours and partying when I wasn’t with her.

During my junior year, I decided to join the cross-country and tennis teams at school, which gave me something better to do after school, but I was now drinking before and during school. I was also going through a hard time at home with my grandfather dying and my parents getting divorced. My teachers were now there for me more than ever. I always had Ms. Allen, Ms. Littlefield, and Ms. Wilson to turn to. They helped me so much. I started to perform somewhat better in my classes and was quickly on the road to recovery. I also had Jessica riding my tail about my behavior in school and my constant drinking. After getting so drunk I thought I was going to die for sure, I was finally able to stop drinking and focus more on school.

My senior year was filled with difficult courses, and I needed to work a little harder. For the first time in my life, I found myself actually having trouble with math. Mrs. Ogletree was my AP Calculus teacher that semester. She would always get on to me for talking to Jessica in class and not paying attention. She loved to pick on me all the time, but I knew she did it because I was one of her favorite students. She taught me more about Calculus than anybody has ever taught me about an individual subject. I started off really poorly in her class. I had a forty-six average through twelve weeks, but I came on strong at the end to pull out a seventy-seven in the class and decided to continue on to second semester because Jessica pleaded with me to do so. I ended up taking the AP exam without a calculator, and I still managed to pass with a three. Supposedly it is impossible to pass without one, considering half of the exam a calculator is needed. I know I could never have done that with any teacher other than Mrs. Ogletree. She was always available to help me and always willing to teach. I was lucky to have her as a teacher. The final thing that probably set me on the straight and narrow for college was the fact that I wanted to prove my doubters wrong. Nobody criticized me more than that fat walrus, Ms. Mayo. Mayo became my teacher again during my senior year. She yelled at me every day and would punish me for no reason. The bitch even sent me to the office when two girls got into an argument across the classroom. She didn’t do anything to the two girls except give them a warning. She punished me because they were fighting over how I used to be interested in one of them and was now seeing the other girl. She always gave me bad grades and always seemed glad when I failed at something. Everyone knew she preferred her female students over her male students, but most people didn’t notice how much she hated me until that year. I was so glad to get out of her class and I wanted to succeed just to be able to rub it in her face.

I was very unhappy and embarrassed when I graduated knowing I had wasted my high school career by not graduating with honors because I drank and partied away my good grades. The only moment I felt proud was hugging Ms. Ogletree after receiving my diploma. It was these experiences that have mellowed me into an excellent student at Georgia Southern and keep me from being drunk like most students here.