That Fateful Day

Oh that fateful day in August of 2006, was the day my life was turned upside down. It was the day I was going with my mother to enroll in the local high school of the town we were moving to. For the past four years I had been home-schooled, which hadn’t worked out to well. So my mother finally consented to let me go back to public school for my senior year. I was so excited to be joining society once more. We went to the school, talked to the secretaries, left some paperwork, and then left the building. The secretary said they would call us once they got everything confirmed.

         A week later my mother gets a phone call from the school. They had bad news. Unfortunately I had no credits in their eyes and would either have to enroll as a freshman or go for my GED. I didn’t want to get a GED as I had plans to go to college to become an aerospace engineer. So I agreed to start out as a freshman. Later that night while I was in my room, I couldn’t help but cry. I was going to be a seventeen year old freshman and was going to be stuck as a freshman while the rest of my old school friends were all going to be graduating that year. I was now terrified of going back to school. Being picked on for my age and people assuming I failed was what I feared the most.

Near the end of August we made or way back to the school to get myself enrolled in my classes. My new guidance counselor seemed really nice though, which made the process easier. On the first of September we finally move into our new house, and four days later I started school. No one talked to me the whole day, with the exception of my teachers. It went like that for weeks, but I didn’t mind, for it meant that no one would bother me about my age.

         Then one day, a classmate was asking everyone their ages and I told them that I was seventeen. She stared at me as if I was crazy, and then the questions and disbelieving began. “No way! Are you serious? You’re kidding! Did you fail? There’s no way your seventeen! Etc.” As they finally began to believe me, it would never fail for someone to ask me if I could drive. At that point in time, I didn’t even have my driver’s permit yet. After a couple of months people began to leave me alone about my age. I had made it without being picked on. It was a miracle in my mind.

I passed the year with flying colors, made some friends, had a boyfriend, broke up with said boyfriend, and enjoyed my first year of school. That summer I turned eighteen, and would be a sophomore. All of my old school friends were going off to college, and I was sitting here watching them leave. For awhile I felt depressed but pushed it aside. I only had another three years to go. All I needed to do was to keep myself entertained.

Sophomore year ended up being boring. My chemistry class I had passed with ease, and yet my guidance counselor had thought I would fail. All that year I found out how my guidance counselor really viewed me as. She thought I couldn’t do certain classes as she thought they would be too hard for me. I proved her wrong time and time again. By my second semester I was bored with most of my classes. I was bringing books with me to read during class. My math two teacher let me read during class because I did so well on my tests. If I didn’t know or understand something we were learning that day then I would put the book down. I read over 150 books my second semester.

The school year ended and I passed my classes. Not as well as the year before but I passed. I turned nineteen in July, went to St. Louis, Missouri, received my driver’s permit. Overall I had an amazing summer. Then I went back to school for my junior year. This is where I’m at now. In just another year to go before I can graduate and then I can leave this school. My classes are too easy, my guidance counselor has no faith in me and thinks I can’t do squat, most of my teachers are idiots, and I’m just bored. The brain inside my head is shriveling to a tiny mass because I hardly use it. So many times I’ve wanted to drop out of school. I keep telling myself that I need to graduate. My goals are to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology for aerospace engineering.

As the days go on, I have to force myself to wake up and go to school. I sit in class for eighty minutes, forcing myself to stay awake, before moving on to the next class. My math teacher is so dependent on a calculator, that if all the calculators in the world died, she wouldn’t even begin to know how to solve a problem. All of my grades are dropping because I’m so bored that I’ve not bothered to pay much attention in class. I’ve read so many books this semester alone that I’m not going to have any to read for second semester. I begin to doubt myself as I’m sitting here, pondering about my future.

Just another year to go, then I can leave this school that has caused me so much pain and boredom. I keep telling myself that, as I sit in my classes. What I need is a challenge, but I’ve yet to find that. I don’t have the funds to enroll in the few online colleges that offer courses for high school students, and my guidance counselor thinks that my intelligence is to low for the college courses offered at my school. I will keep going, even though it pains me to do so. All I need to do is keep telling myself that I will be free of this jail of boredom in just another year.