Youth Stories

Through My Eyes

If I could of done anything with my life it would of been the ability to stay focus, graduate high school, and not worry about anything. Unfortunately that is not my life, my life does not allow me to stay focus, my attitude towards school made me want to drop out and I worried about everything.

When I first came to this school I was messing up; ditching, fighting and feeling angry all the time, that was a common day for me. I felt invisible and no one seemed to care. Unfortunately my actions got me expelled and I had a ticket to community school.

This is where the change began, the teachers and counselors helped me turn my attitude around. I no longer felt invisible. It was difficult at first, talking to my counselor about personnel issues, it did me me uncomfortable, but they seemed to care and that made me want to open up more.  My counselor listened to my issues and not once did I feel like she was looking or talking down to me. I think the counseling sessions help me discover solutions.

At my school we are a community, we help each other. When one of us struggles we make sure that person stays up. I think more schools need to be like this. I know if this program wasn’t here I would be messing up. I had to chance to succeed and while that is hard to do, having counselors and teachers who care made it all possible.

My Experience

Growing up and going to school was hard for me because I thought it was boring. I knew I needed to graduate high school, unfortunately there were too many challenges that made school and my experience less than desirable. My anger, attitude and not being motivated was a roadblock I thought I could never overcome.

Before coming to this school I was not motivated, the effort I put in my school work reflected both in my grades and credits, but I did not care, I felt as though I did not belong. In my mind staff was not helpful and when I needed help it seemed like no one was there, especially when problems were happening at home. The second challenge that was going to get in the way of me graduating was my anger. I felt frustrated and in a bad mood all the time eventually it led me being kicked out of school. At this point I hated going to school, I hated everything about it.

Things started to change when I went to Community School. The first day I knew it was going to be a good place for me. I hated going to school, yet here at this school I couldn’t wait to get up in the mornings. I’m always anxious and excited to come to school. One of the reasons I feel this way is the learning environment. I learn everyday from my teachers, and counselors from Cleo Eulau. My counselor Cindy, helps me learn new ways on how to control my anger and to think before I do things.

In my short time at Community School, I’ve changed so many ways. I’m grateful that I came to this school and have requested to stay. It’s been a great experience and has made me a better person. I am very proud to be part of my school.