"Three days ago I began to get worried about the story. I know I shouldn't procrastinate the way I do, but you know how it goes. When the assignment doesn’t have to be handed in for two or three weeks, or even a week, it seems like a long way off. I always excuse myself by saying that I work better under pressure, but for some reason…
Across the nation, thousands of students ranging from elementary to college levels are sent back to their place of residence after a long day of lectures with work they must complete in order to be prepared for the next day of class. For younger students, the load is minimal, and may only consist of reviewing their vocabulary words. However, for students in high school and beyond, their backpacks are stretching at the seams with books to read, notes to study, papers to write, projects to complete. While many will ignore their responsibilities to focus on their extracurriculars, headstrong students with a yearn for learning will set their sights on their assignments and stay cooped up at a desk for hours upon hours in order to comprehend every…
In first grade, I was the new kid that showed up halfway through the year. A few years later, I’m struggling through the most anxiety-ridden test of any third grader’s life, a timed multiplication test. Skip forward another year, and I’m battling the unexpected cruelties of essay writing, dreaming of the beautiful fiction I had fallen in love with in previous years. The years flash by, one after another, and the playground…
The morning my alarm went off for my EDHE class my mind instantly went to skipping. Even though my dorm is not even a minute away from the Kinard building, where class was being held this particular morning, the monstrous hill that I had to climb to get there made it a breathtaking five minute walk. I finally found the courage to roll out of bed and began my journey to class to hear about that day's lesson, which is a lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life.…
83% of juniors at South St. Paul Secondary High School complain about their teachers, schoolwork, and the lack of a social life due to IB classes.On Thursday, the 11th grade students at South St. Paul High School all cheered and yelled as the bell rang at 2:35 for the day to be over and a three-day weekend to begin. As the students quickly rushed to their lockers, grabbed their backpacks and ran out the school, we overheard conversations of plans for the week. We stopped to speak to a girl clearly on a mission to get home. As we walked quickly behind her, she said loudly, “I’m sick and damn tired of all these people I just want to go home and watch Netflix for three days!” She then sped up and ran away from us.…
Today is perhaps one of the most important days of my life. It is the day I take my placement exam that determines which major you will be put into at the higher learning institution. Shakily I finish getting dressed for the day, I am adorned in a pair of navy pants and a grey button up with the number 84 on the cuff. Each year the society gives a number to every child born. I was the 84th child of the year so that is the number I was assigned, many of my other classmates have number ranging from 20 to over 200. I slip out of my room and jog to the end of my hall barely catching the last lift to the 97th floor where the test is administered. Not everyone gets invited to secondary school, for 75% of the world primary is the end, they didn’t pass, and would be taught trade jobs with little opportunity for advancement. Due to this pressure of the test looms over me and the memory of leaving my mother and family take over my mind almost daily.…
Freshman year is never an easy year, especially when you're the new girl. Aliyah wanted to incinerate her past and have a fresh start; she would be a stranger to all of them. Once she arrived to her new locker, she had a difficult time accessing it. After the twentieth time, she was finally able to open her locker and put all her supplies inside. On her way to her first class, she had overheard that the math teacher assigned arduous assignments causing an abundance of students to drop out within the first week. Mrs.Katra, the math teacher, gave a "I've been doing this for 35 years, I know all the tricks" speech for 30 minutes and gave us a homework assignment afterwards; at first glance it didn't seem difficult but after looking at it for a while, Aliyah began to feel uneasy about the class. She usually liked challenges and was intrepid but school was important to her and she didn't want to disappoint her parents.…
The subject English and me have always had a love hate relationship. I love writing when I can write about stories and not write stories, but this year I learned that writing stories isn’t that bad. I am much more open to writing about myself than I was before I began this course. At first it was very difficult for me to put words on papers because most of the prompts had to be personal stories. It was something that I struggled with mainly because I am more reserved and expressing myself isn’t very easy. I feel that writing it was even more difficult simply because I had to make sure I was giving the message I wanted. It is very hard to connect with the audience especially on more personal topics. I was able to overcome this obstacle by using…
“Wrong answer Laurran, do it again,” Mrs. Taylor raised her voice at me. The room went silent. Nobody was talking or moving, to scared to get scolded by Mrs. Taylor. I always wondered who would want to marry her, or how she treated her kids at home. I honestly feel bad for her two kids if she treated her own students this way. I sat there, my eyes tearing up from embarrassment and failure. Mrs. Taylor doesn't understand how hard it is; doing math that is a grade above your level of experience. She doesn’t understand the pressure that is on me from my parents to do good and from the older kids in my class to show them I’m not dumb and I can do this.…
It had been a crazy morning as I ran all over my house trying to find my jacket and boots. My mom had been admitted into the hospital that morning for a massive headache and all I could think about was whether or not she would be okay. I took her to the emergency room that day before so going to class was the last thing on my mind. My father and sister had agreed to stay with her till I ended class so I was more at ease knowing she wouldn’t be alone. After running all over my house looking for my things I quickly gathered myself to make my train. I finally got to Penn Station with four minutes to spare. I quickly walked to where the rest of my class was as we waited for instructions to where we would…
College gives a freedom like nothing I had ever experienced before. I remember the first time I missed class. I was so nervous until I realized that I was in charge of myself. After that realization, I missed class for every reason imaginable. It rained this morning, its cold outside, its hot outside, I didn't do the reading and I don’t want my professor to ask me any questions. I didn’t think about how I was actually hurting myself. I…
It was a typical first day of school. Rushing to get ready, finding the perfect outfit, cliche first-day-of-school pictures. When I got to school, everything was normal. Life was good. But, in a weird class I had called “Creative Learning”, we were given an assignment. It wasn’t a normal assignment. We had to write a horror story, and we were…
“Okay everyone, settle down so we could start the test.” Mrs. Nair said, and I carefully followed her instructions, appearing like a student fully prepared for the test. Wait, of course I just look prepared on the outside but if you would dissect me like a frog and try to experiment on “The Anatomy of Jovelle Salamanca” you would find out that the exact moment I entered the classroom, my blood pressure must have been so high because my heart was pounding so quickly. I am sure that I’m having a nervous breakdown. The first and last thng that came into my mind was “I’ll do my best, but I am ready to fail.” People know me as a positive person but in times like this, like in a crisis, I am the most pessimistic person you…
11:20 PM found me in front of a glowing computer screen yet again. The essay was assigned weeks ago, but I was cursed with the bad habit of procrastinating. I spent hours everyday browsing statuses on Facebook, watching videos on YouTube, and reading tweets on Twitter; procrastination had become a lifestyle. I had an essay due tonight at 11:59 PM and I had been staring blankly at the empty page, praying for any inspiration to come to me.…
Mr. Wolff was my sixth grade English teacher, as an advanced English student the first essay he assigned was rather demanding. Struck by writer’s block, I was only able to conquer five pages of the assigned six-page essay. Mr. Wolff asked for a word after class; obliging I listened to him rant about how he expected more out of me than five pages of redundancy. I left the classroom with a rigid, seemingly emotionless expression. I went to my only friend, my…