Personal Narrative: Success Or Failure In School

I’ve never been good at very many things. In fact, I quit or failed almost everything I’ve been involved in pertaining to school or extracurricular activities. I wanted to accomplish something that my parents would be proud of but I didn’t have much motivation. It wasn’t until my freshman year that I decided to work harder to achieve something to be proud of; I was just waiting around for the success to come to me. I quickly learned that I wasn’t going to get anywhere that way. When I started eighth grade my grades went rapidly downhill, I was extremely sluggish every day. My grades didn’t really bother me because in my mind I was only in eighth grade and it wouldn’t matter in five years. I was involved in band thought I wasn’t very talented musically, I would do the minimum to keep my grade passing. I was passing about four of my classes and the rest were borderline F’s; I can’t express enough how unhappy my mom was. On top of the bad grades the disciplinary notices were at an
There was a loophole though; my mom figured the only way to convince me to do well in school is to give me an incentive. We made a deal, when I get my report card at the end of the year I would get paid for each of my grades. Every A is worth $50.00, B is worth $30.00 and a C is worth $15.00. However, if I got a D it was -$50.00 and an F was -$100.00; this definitely kept my grades from slipping. There was also another half to our deal, if I at least finished freshman year in band then the next year I could quit and do whatever other organization I wanted. I agreed to this because high school band is a lot more fun than middle school; when you get to march a show it doesn’t even seem like work anymore because you’re having so much fun. This was the start to a whole new school year and I was ready to work for the rewards at the beginning of