Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.
The transition from my comfortable warm desk I knew as my bed; to a cold, hard, squeaky workstation at middle school was tough for me. But it was a necessary change after five years of home education. In this world there are two types of people, night owls and early birds. Being an early bird myself, homeschooling was perfect for me. Aside from the superficial comfort of sleeping in, homeschooling allotted me an appropriate amount of time to get the schoolwork I needed to finish for the day done at my own pace. The pace at which I was able to accomplish schoolwork was much slower than all of my peers. When I was in kindergarten, a teacher recommended I get tested for dyslexia. I was having a lot of trouble pronouncing even the easiest words such as "there"," were" and even "the." This became very frustrating to me; I just didn't understand why all of my friends were at such a high reading level. One month later I was sitting in a cubical one on one with my personal tutor for dyslexia. It was here that I learned simple sight words and how to read them phonetically. I hated it, but I knew that going to these sessions three days a week for 2 hours would be beneficial for my future education so I didn't complain. At the end of it, all I could do was thank my tutor and my parents because I was finally able to read a book all the way through to the end. Every decision in life has trade-offs and in this case, I traded in five years of elementary school. In elementary school, some of the strongest, longest lasting relationships are made, and I had missed out on this. This made it very difficult going into middle school.
When I received the prestigious Northern Burlington Gala award at the end of my seventh grade year, I felt like I belonged in public school. This award marked my transition into the scary environment I once knew as middle school. Mrs. Terrano, my seventh grade reading teacher, nominated me for this award because of my outstanding character and transformation throughout the year. At the beginning of the year she said I was "walking on egg shells," and she explained how at the end of the year I transformed into an amazing all around student and found my own place in public school. This award meant a lot to me because as I entered middle school, I never really thought it was meant for me. As much as I hated the idea, my family and I talked about switching schools or returning to homeschooling. I wanted to avoid this at all costs because I knew I would be missing out on the very important social aspect of school. Ultimately, receiving the Greyhound Gala Award erased all contemplations and doubts that I had about Northern Burlington Middle School. This award was one of the main reasons I decided to continue my education following the standardized, structured, yet important curriculum of public school. As I stood up to receive my award, I took a quick glance back and saw a young boy staring at me and realized the amazing transformation I have made.
The transition from my comfortable warm desk I knew as my bed; to a cold, hard, squeaky workstation at middle school was tough for me. But it was a necessary change after five years of home education. In this world there are two types of people, night owls and early birds. Being an early bird myself, homeschooling was perfect for me. Aside from the superficial comfort of sleeping in, homeschooling allotted me an appropriate amount of time to get the schoolwork I needed to finish for the day done at my own pace. The pace at which I was able to accomplish schoolwork was much slower than all of my peers. When I was in kindergarten, a teacher recommended I get tested for dyslexia. I was having a lot of trouble pronouncing even the easiest words such as "there"," were" and even "the." This became very frustrating to me; I just didn't understand why all of my friends were at such a high reading level. One month later I was sitting in a cubical one on one with my personal tutor for dyslexia. It was here that I learned simple sight words and how to read them phonetically. I hated it, but I knew that going to these sessions three days a week for 2 hours would be beneficial for my future education so I didn't complain. At the end of it, all I could do was thank my tutor and my parents because I was finally able to read a book all the way through to the end. Every decision in life has trade-offs and in this case, I traded in five years of elementary school. In elementary school, some of the strongest, longest lasting relationships are made, and I had missed out on this. This made it very difficult going into middle school.
When I received the prestigious Northern Burlington Gala award at the end of my seventh grade year, I felt like I belonged in public school. This award marked my transition into the scary environment I once knew as middle school. Mrs. Terrano, my seventh grade reading teacher, nominated me for this award because of my outstanding character and transformation throughout the year. At the beginning of the year she said I was "walking on egg shells," and she explained how at the end of the year I transformed into an amazing all around student and found my own place in public school. This award meant a lot to me because as I entered middle school, I never really thought it was meant for me. As much as I hated the idea, my family and I talked about switching schools or returning to homeschooling. I wanted to avoid this at all costs because I knew I would be missing out on the very important social aspect of school. Ultimately, receiving the Greyhound Gala Award erased all contemplations and doubts that I had about Northern Burlington Middle School. This award was one of the main reasons I decided to continue my education following the standardized, structured, yet important curriculum of public school. As I stood up to receive my award, I took a quick glance back and saw a young boy staring at me and realized the amazing transformation I have made.