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When I first heard news from my mother of a neat, little school she found while searching on the web, I did not expect the latter adjective to be so fitting. I really don’t think she did either. When we first visited the school in person, Mr. Palma gave us a quick tour of the place. Honestly, I thought there was more to the school, but that he simply did not have time to show us the rest (no, I did not ask, and yes, I failed completely to notice the full perimeter of the school before walking in). The classrooms full of computers were definitely something I could respect, but the airport-style security scanner rather unsettled me, to be perfectly frank. I left that visit that day on the fence on how I felt about what I was getting myself into. I didn’t really think about it much from then on, thought the whole school-changing process would be more bearable if I just didn’t worry about it too much. The day came soon enough, though, and sure enough, I found myself walking through the very same scanner I warily eyed some weeks before, without shoes and without a phone. Sure, the zero-tolerance policy may have been intimidating at first, but other than that, I ended up loving my first three days of orientation. I expected loudness and a tedious virtual curriculum, but instead found a sense of community (with how together the school is because of its size) and an academic system that took the meaning of “stress-free” to a whole other level.
The rest of my time here at Green Springs passed mostly uneventful. That is not to say it was any less enjoyed, for the fact. In fact, it was that very fact that has caused me to hold this particular school at the top of all the three high schools I’ve attended in my life. The calmness of the day-to-day is what I think I will miss most about this school. But nonetheless, I will describe the general outline my experience followed up and to this point, along with a particular noteworthy mention I believe could use some limelight, although at the time I thought it held no significance for anyone but me. The days following orientation were eyes full-of-monitor and tongue lack-of-much, as I’m sure most new students are at first. The absence of familiarity from the schools we used to go to, I believe, is the reason we’re so keen to stay glued to Apex the first couple of days or weeks. Now while I remained not-so-spoken for much of the remainder of my time here, my work discipline wasn’t so lucky as to have remained unchanged as well. There came a time a couple months in where I thought it would be fine to “relax a little” and basically do (or not do) the very same thing that got me kicked out of my home magnet school. The amount of daily quizzes completed dropped absurdly; productivity had reached a (very familiar) all-time low. This continued for about a month, but thankfully, intervention came from a very unexpected corner. My teacher was always one to be on top of students who were falling behind, but to this day I suppose he never hovered over me because I wasn’t one to bring much attention to myself during class (and, of course, that I did plenty of work since the start). Yet one fateful day, he called me over personally and pointed out my very strange drop-off in effort. I could not deny it, and he advised that I should pick it up before my parents got the news. Now I have had my fill of familial nagging in life and resolved I could do without some more. To wrap it up: I picked it up. Perhaps not as much as before, but definitely a sizable recovery. Who knew the whole “we'll tell your parents” scheme could finally work after five years of poor grades? I didn’t, that’s who. So I got up to speed and this pretty much continued until the end. Now as for the noteworthy mention – this took place December of last year (2015). To put a long story short, I participated in the Holiday Card submission event, solely interested in making an easy 15 bucks. Never in a million years, though, did I expect my card to come out on top overall and win me the grand $50 prize (as well). I've never had much luck with chance winnings, so this huge reward for such a little card which—if I am to be perfectly honest—I thought could use more work, was, well.. huge. Sure, this school might not have had prom and homecoming and big field trips like other schools, but this is a school I positively will not be forgetting, with its smallness and scanner and all!
My hope is to study in the field of graphic design in college. Throughout most of life I could not say for certain what I wanted to do for a living. One area of interest would pop up one after another but I never really found any of them to be something I could hold fast to in long terms. I know at first it was the whole animal fascination, then soccer came along, and even at one point I wanted to become a photographer (even though I had never held a camera in that way in my life). But recently, I have realized that graphic design has held my attention for quite some while now. It is definitely a practice I enjoy and could see myself living on in the coming years. Plus, I’ve seen the numbers and it seems to pay healthily. This high school diploma will essentially be the jump-start to a future in that particular lane. It will help me get a job—as opposed to how more complicated it can be to obtain employment without one—that will help my family take care of the costs for my college tuition (as well as take trivial bills off my parents, but that goes without saying). There was a time when I thought a diploma had fallen out of my reach, but now thanks to this school I know brighter days are all (even more so) within my grasp.