For me, high school has been a roller coaster, a life altering experience with many ups and downs. When I started high school as a Freshman three short years ago, I had ambitions higher than the Empire State Building. I identified myself as an athlete, dedicated to my sport and determined to be a varsity starter- which I now recognize was a long shot as a Freshman. I loved my sport, and practiced as much as I could with absolutely anyone I could. Everyday I would show up to practice happy, excited and motivated. Little did I know that my fellow “teammates” hated me, and did not want me around. I did everything to fit in. I began watching what I ate, in an attempt to lose weight. I began working on my temperament, being as they did not approve of my bubbly, giggly self, I soon developed a nasty attitude and a negative outlook on life. By the end of my Freshman year, I was mean to most people and had very few friends.

During the summer after Freshman year, I broke my arm. This seemed to me at the time to be a curse, but I now can see what a blessing it truly was. I was out of my sport for a few months, and in my recovery gained a lot of weight and lost my speed. It hurt being that I was the star of the Freshman team once, and now a benchwarmer on JV.  Still, the girls were relentless on me, even the now Freshmen. As another attempt to fit in, I began dating a senior boy. He made me feel good, and to the girls on the team I finally was one with them as I was a sophomore dating a senior. In the middle of my Sophomore year, the boy told me he did not actually have any romantic feelings for me, and left me torn apart. My life was shattered, everyone on the team thought I was a loser, my friends hated my new attitude, and now I was a boyfriendless loser again. I wanted to give up on life, and transfer schools and start over again.

Then, something wonderful happened... I rediscovered music, and it became my saving grace. I was offered a position as a flutist my Junior year for the Orange Wave Marching Band. All my life, I considered being in band “social suicide”. But you know what the real “social suicide” was? Changing everything about yourself for people who do not love you, and will never be there for you. I had played the clarinet when I was younger, but had forgotten how wonderful playing music made me feel until I picked up my flute.  I fell in love with the flute, an instrument I just picked up the end of my Sophomore year. Playing gave me a sensation of happiness no friend, or guy for that matter ever could give me. It gave me a motivation and a purpose. From that moment on, I learned that music is my real passion, and the kids I met in Band are my real friends, and always will be.

To say High School was easy for me (academically, or socially), would be a complete and utter lie. But then again, for whom is High School easy? What I now know though, is that all my experiences- good and bad - have taught me lessons I would not learn anywhere else, and have shaped the confident, happy, independent woman I now am. My ambitions Freshman year were high, yet unrealistic. From my experiences I learned that as a now almost Senior, I want to pursue a double Major in Music and Psychology, as social sciences have also peaked my interest throughout High School.  I want to be the best musician I can, and continue my academic track up to a Doctorate degree, becoming the first female doctor in my family. I began high school as a confused little freshman, striving to fit into a crowd I never will. With senior year right around the corner, I now define myself as an intelligent, unique, passionate young woman who knows what she wants to do with her life. I am happy with the woman I have become, and proud of the strength I had to overcome such emotional abuse. I hope these traits follow me to senior year, college, and throughout the rest of my days.