My School Experience
Andrew Dufour
Laurie Engberg
WR 121/ Essay #1
9 July, 2013
My School Experience Throughout my life I have always struggled with school. You could say it’s because I have ADHD. That seems to be the favorite reason given by people who were trying to figure out why this “smart” kid was doing so miserably in school. I wasn’t convinced. For whatever reason though, I’ve always been a terrible student. Through high school, my plan was to join the military when I graduated; worry about college later. So my logic was to skate by just enough to graduate so I could enlist, serve my term in the military, grow up a little, and figure who I was and what I wanted to do with my life by the time I was out. I did the first part at least. I graduated from Newberg High School in 2012, with a 1.9 cumulative GPA. I was happy just to walk on graduation night with my friends. The summer before my senior year, I took two full classes of English, and one term of biology through credit recovery, and a drug diversion class through the state. I was motivated to take care of my school work that year and let my social life take the back seat. I could not afford to fail anymore classes or to get into any more trouble. So that’s what I did. My grades weren’t pretty, but they were all passing. My favorite class was easily Oregon ecology. Everyone but the teacher, Mr. Siderius, said I shouldn’t take it. A heavy workload, intense tests, and more than anything, you really couldn’t afford to miss a class. None of that mattered; I already made up my mind. When that happens there really isn’t a whole lot that will change it. Just as well, I passed it easily and enjoyed every second of it. The class was proficiency based, so it was graded largely by test scores, which was great news for me because, in spite of all my other faults as a student, I love learning, and for that reason I typically did well on tests. Unfortunately that was of no help to me in English. I failed
Laurie Engberg
WR 121/ Essay #1
9 July, 2013
My School Experience Throughout my life I have always struggled with school. You could say it’s because I have ADHD. That seems to be the favorite reason given by people who were trying to figure out why this “smart” kid was doing so miserably in school. I wasn’t convinced. For whatever reason though, I’ve always been a terrible student. Through high school, my plan was to join the military when I graduated; worry about college later. So my logic was to skate by just enough to graduate so I could enlist, serve my term in the military, grow up a little, and figure who I was and what I wanted to do with my life by the time I was out. I did the first part at least. I graduated from Newberg High School in 2012, with a 1.9 cumulative GPA. I was happy just to walk on graduation night with my friends. The summer before my senior year, I took two full classes of English, and one term of biology through credit recovery, and a drug diversion class through the state. I was motivated to take care of my school work that year and let my social life take the back seat. I could not afford to fail anymore classes or to get into any more trouble. So that’s what I did. My grades weren’t pretty, but they were all passing. My favorite class was easily Oregon ecology. Everyone but the teacher, Mr. Siderius, said I shouldn’t take it. A heavy workload, intense tests, and more than anything, you really couldn’t afford to miss a class. None of that mattered; I already made up my mind. When that happens there really isn’t a whole lot that will change it. Just as well, I passed it easily and enjoyed every second of it. The class was proficiency based, so it was graded largely by test scores, which was great news for me because, in spite of all my other faults as a student, I love learning, and for that reason I typically did well on tests. Unfortunately that was of no help to me in English. I failed