Personal Narrative: How Algebra Changed My Life

My mind had been overwrought because I have not skated in a while. When I first laced up my skates after the long drought of not playing tears started to form in my eyes. I was not sad, but I realized the big mistake I had made. This year I am able to play both sports and manage to get all of my school work done. Meeting someone who plays hockey is such an amazing thing because we share something a lot of people do not have.

Every student starting middle school has a conflict in making new friends the first days of school. Me myself also had problems making new friends because I was very shy. Fortunately I had one of my friends from elementary school. Although I'd love to tell you the way I made friends I changed over the year to survive middle school. Overall I was a good student in elementary, but I had many flaws and I still do.

Over the years, my progress in writing had decreased. When I was in school, I could write a decent essay and achieve less errors. But writing an essay now is a harder task to complete than before. Years ago, reading was interesting because it kept me hungry to learn more knowledge. But being out of school for nearly two years makes it difficult to write essays.

Before I entered high school, I was never a fan of doing tasks that took a lot of nerve. Ever since I moved to Canada, I was insecure about my communication skills because I did not know much English and I was unfamiliar with the new environment. Therefore, my insecurity led me to become timid, as I started to have social anxiety. However, at the start of high school, I was determined to overcome my social anxiety and improve my public speaking skills. During the freshman year of high school, I noticed that there are monthly school events that take place during lunch time and so, I would always visit them and have a great time.

At first I started off taking 1 or 2 classes per semester, but outside interference had me gradually upping the classes. Between work, a lack of motivation due to not having any idea of what I wanted out of life carved out, and pressure from family, I found myself not prepared for these classes. This is what you will see as you look up and down my transcript and see W's and WF's. You will see the unachieved goals, the times I thought I was an angel, the times I dreamt of being perfect. At the time of writing this paper I am 23 years old.

The beginning of the year started of rough as we started writing our first essay. I had no idea how I was going to write it at all. I struggled and struggled, but I started to get the hang of it, or well I thought I did when I got the essay back i had mad a 64. I was only one point from passing it which was still a bad grade but like I said I have never been good at writing. Although I was not expecting a good grade, I still wondered what I had done wrong.

for the first two years I always complained “It's so boring” and stuff like “don't force me to go again” but I got my stubbornness from my parents, so I kept going. It took a long time for me to stop complaining and realize that nothing is really “girly”. It wasn't until my fourth year that i realized it was something i really enjoyed. the dance shoppe has weekly hour long classes, usually just practicing, learning new steps, and combos and stuff. Then once it hits christmas break, we start to learn our dance.

My first time playing hockey was in the heart of winter on a frozen pond located down the block from my house. I went on the pond with my dad and brother for an afternoon of fun and sure enough that afternoon of fun turned into me falling in love with the sport and wanting to play it for the rest of my lifetime. My parents noticed my love for hockey and signed me up for a roller hockey class at my local community center. At first I made a major mistake and doubted myself because most of the kids in my class had already been playing hockey for a few seasons and it seemed like they were on a completely different level than I was. My parents urged me to keep trying and thankfully I never gave up and kept playing.

At the very young age of four years old I took my first of many strides on the ice. My first hockey season began not long after. I have three older brothers who all played hockey at that time, and I began to follow in their footsteps. I grew up watching hockey with my family and I believe that’s where my love for the game truly began. From the very first practice, I was simply in love and hooked with a responsibility to show up to all the practices and games every week.

Spring of 2014 I started my college career by enrolling at Highline College in Des Moines and take Highline’s placement testing. I scored significantly lower in math than what I had in high school, but I scored into college level English. I was highly discouraged with my math scores, I made excuses why I got those scores, blamed how long the test took, blamed how early it was but, after I calmed down and took the time to really look at the reason why I got the score that and realized It was because of my choice not to study beforehand. There understood that I wasn’t ready for college level math and where I placed was where I needed to start at if I wanted to start my college education with a solid foundation in mathematics. In Fall 2014 I began my first quarter as a Highline