Christopher Alfaro
ENG103
September 18, 2017
My most memorable years probably had to be in middle school. I attended I.S.145Q, in Jackson Heights. The 3 years spent here were filled with ups and multiple downs. It was at this age where I started declining academically. My interests drifted away from the academic fields and I started seeing beyond following an academic path.
Obviously this was just my mind roaming off elsewhere, because I really didn’t like school. I showed up and did everything that had to be done, but I wasn’t enjoying it. Despite the lack of interest, I did learn a lot and discovered my interest for history and also art in the 7th grade. At this stage you tend to start developing your personality and I started finding myself and building myself up. I met people that had I had things in common with and they’re still my best friends till today. We had similar struggles but found ways to help each other succeed. I spent most of my afternoons after the 7th grade in detention for all my latenesses, and was even suspended multiple times because of it. It was so bad, my dean had told me I had set a record of latenesses for the school year. Although it probably all sounds bad, my years in middle school have many positive moments.
This eventually came to an end after graduation, obviously. A month later I moved to Colombia and started High School later that year. This was a drastic change in which the Educational system was way more advanced than I could have imagined, but also an amazing experience. At first I struggled a whole lot because of how advanced they actually were. In my first year, they were already deep into chemistry and physics. Something I don’t remember seeing in middle school. Because of obstacles like these, I felt worse towards school. At that moment, I started looking in a different direction. I found a passion for soccer in me I didn’t know existed. I took it upon myself to make something happen and fit practice sessions into my school schedule and after graduating High School, I was more than committed to it.
This forced me to give up things any other teenager my age would do, such as go out late nights, drinking, partying, etc. In my head this was all worth it but I would ask myself “How bad do I want it?” More than anything. I eventually went on to playing at a semi-professional level, and Because of certain conflicts with my parents, I left Colombia to come here and start school. Back to school though, it’s something I feel like I needed to go through. Those three years really pushed me to challenge myself and do more than I thought I was able to do and bring my grades up or in other situations. These years of my life are important to me because of that drastic change experienced while leaving the country. After a whole life here, I moved onto something different and made the best of it. Sometimes events like those can change you as a person and make you want to strive for all types of success, like it did to me.