This is my explanation for the common app as to why I switched schools 3 times and repeated junior year. Please! I welcome all feedback! Thanks in advance!
It seems that since I started high school, I was searching for a school that was a better fit, but in a town as small as mine, my options were less than plentiful- making this no easy task. Having been raised to care about my education, I was determined to be part of a learning community where success and excellence is encouraged for each individual. For some, this might have meant switching to an elite private school, but for me, it meant switching out. As with many things, the school I had attended bore great promise on paper, but in practice, things were not quite so perfect.
The first alternative I tried was a charter homeschool program in my area. Though I liked the program that semester and learned a lot, my mom just didn't have time to make lesson plans and maintain her hours at work in the following year and thus, I was re-enrolled in the private school. In the spring of the following year, 4 of my close cousins as well as 10 of their friends died when their plane crashed just 500 feet from the runway, leaving no survivors. To this day, we don't know what happened to cause such a tragic accident. Having never had such a calamity enter my life, the emotional collapse that followed was all too complete.
My grades dropped dramatically and my ambitions began to dissolve. I finished out the year, though just hardly, and when the next year began, things had only marginally improved. When the spring semester approached, though it was almost a year after the crash, I was still being affected almost every day. Life itself was a struggle. I again searched for an academic alternative, this time to be able to distance myself from a social world that was still too much to deal with. I took very few classes that semester, but kept myself engaged in many volunteer opportunities. It was a time for me to fully grieve and recover at last.
The following year, I was back on track with goals reinstated or reformed and ready to make an impact on my world. It was supposed to be my senior year, but when a close friend's mother told me of a new charter high school she had enrolled her daughters in and been quite impressed with, I was more than intrigued. The only problem was that the school wasn't going to enroll seniors until the following year. However, I talked it over with my parents and we decided that I could actually benefit greatly by re-taking my junior year and regaining the time I had lost to grief and tragedy.
At this new school, I found teachers who cared and a friendly student body motivated toward lifelong success. I had no reputation here and could really recreate myself as who I wanted to be. I have also had the opportunity to take two college classes each semester, making my repeated year quite worthwhile after all. The past year and a half at this school, appropriately named Inspire, has been better than I ever dreamed high school could be. I have learned so much academically, socially, and emotionally. And from all these changes, I have been able to find myself and better prepare for an exciting future that gets closer every day.
[It seems that since I started high school, I was searching for a school that was a better fit, but in a town as small as mine, my options were less than plentiful- making this no easy task.]-wordy
You can try combining the first two clauses, "I have been searching for a high school that was a better fit ever since I started school". Gets rid of the passive voice as well.
[Having never had such a calamity enter my life...]-confusing
"Never having such a calamity enter my life, I..." Puts it in the active voice as well.
[I again searched for an academic alternative, this time to be able to distance myself from a social world that was still too much to deal with.]-second phrase is confusing and wordy
"I again searched for an academic alternative that would distance myself away from..."
[ I found teachers who cared]-little thing
"I found caring teachers..."
That's about it. I'm not the best editor, but this looks good so far!
