A Change in My Life - Essay Example

A Change in My Life From the time when I started primary school, I was always among the best students in class with high grades and an excellent outlook towards my education. I was completely focused on my academics and this always ensured that I was at peak performance whenever there were assignments or tests administered. I was a source of pride for my family and teachers who often declared that I was very intelligent and that one day, I would make them all proud by joining the ranks of the great academics of the world. These sentiments greatly encouraged me to work even harder in my academics because I came to the realization that it was the only way through which I could become successful in life. Because of my hard work and the effort that I put in my educational endeavors, I got very good grades in my final primary school exams and qualified to enter high school. I was so happy with my achievement that I was determined to ensure that my performance would always remain high in my new educational level. With this in mind, and considering the great promise that I had in academics, I was admitted into high school. High school turned out to be quite different from primary school and this was mainly because there were more freedoms and new people who I had to study with. Most of my old friends from primary school went on to different school and at first; life in the new environment was quite lonely. However, after a few weeks, I was befriended by some of the most popular students in the school and this, I felt, was a great privilege. In primary school, I had never really been popular, with the little popularity that I had having been based on my academic performance. Whereas other students had concentrated on fun and what I thought were good things in life, I had concentrated on my studies and that was the reason why I was among the best. However, in high school, all this changed because for the first time in my life, I was among the popular kids. Most of the other students looked up to me and it felt wonderful and in my mind, nothing could be better. From that time, I put my academics in the background and I instead concentrated on spending time with my new friends and having fun because that is what I thought high school was all about. As a result of my new lifestyle, my academics began to take a beating but while this was happening, my new friends convinced me that because I was a clever guy, I could always catch up whenever I wanted. I was so engrossed with the idea of remaining popular that I altogether stopped caring about my education and school became not a place of learning but one where I competed with others for popularity. Despite the constant warnings that I received from my tutors, I failed to adhere to them, not wanting to believe that things had become bad. In my tenth grade however, everything went out of control as in all of my test and assignments, I received one failing grade after another. Still, I did not worry because I still believed that I could make it without too much effort and that this was only a temporary setback. What I did not realize was that I was failing completely and that the warnings from my teachers held a lot of truth. I continued to concentrate on my new found life and when the end of the school year came, I received one of the greatest blows in my life. I had completely failed tenth grade and because of this failure, I had to be left behind. This was one of the most devastating news that I had received in my life and I was very hurt by it. It also marked a turnaround in my attitude because despite having hang out with the most popular people in school and had fun with them, they had all left me behind. Even those friends who seemed not to care at all about their academics had received excellent grades. Not only was I embarrassed but I was also ashamed of the attitude that I had adopted, but also by the new friends that I had made because they misled me. I also came to the realization that high school was not as easy as primary school and that just because I had passed the previous level with ease did not mean that I had to make less of an effort. Instead, I had to increase further my efforts to study because this was the only way through which I could excel in high school and other levels of education. In order to achieve my new objectives, I chose to change my life completely. The first step that I took was to get new friends who were more focused in their education rather than in having fun and these helped me to recover from the laxity that had overcome me in my academics. I no longer had any distractions and this ensured that my performance also recovered and I regained my position as among the best in my class. I learned many lessons from my failure in tenth grade and among these was the while it was fine to have fun, I had to create a balance with my education because this was the only way to develop a well rounded life. With this in mind, I was able to not only become one of the best students in my class, but when high school graduation came, I graduated with 96.1%, and ranked third out of a class of thirty. I was extremely touched by this performance and I came to the realization that it was because I had realized my mistakes early enough and taken proper steps to correct them. Had I continued to prioritize fun over my studies, it is more likely than not that I would never have been successful in my academics and would have carried the burden of failure for the rest of my life. Read More