Being the younger sibling I always looked up to my brother. We are four years apart in age and I would always want to do everything he did. Growing up Adam was a smart kid, he did well in elementary school and in middle school. As time passed Adam started to hang out with the wrong group of kids, his new friends did not take school seriously. When high school started Adam got off at the wrong foot. He chose to not take high school seriously, and not think about his future going into college and past that. He chose to goof off, and not do well in his academics. Throughout Adam’s college career my parents tried to discipline him, straighten him up to get good grades. None of it had worked, he slacked, he was lazy, and he didn't care. He struggled through school for the four years at Maine south and as I was getting ready to start my high school career i watched Adam start and finish his badly.
Going into high school I was very stressed out, there was so much work that needed to be done and i was not ready for it. While I had been preparing for my next four years in high school, all I heard was how Adam hated it and that it was awful. That did not help me think positive about the next years in school. For so long I would hear such bad things about Maine South that fourteen year old me was petrified of just walked into the school. Lets just say Adam did not comfort me in the months before I was going to start high school. But, I knew that stressing out was not going to help me in any way. I realized that I needed to think ‘Should I take these next four years seriously?’ or ‘Ehh, I’ll goof off just like my brother did.’ It seems like it would be obvious to take is seriously but it was a hard thing to think about. It was hard when all I saw was my brother going out and having fun and not focusing on his school, and not seeing school work being done properly. To be honest Adam had a lot of fun during high school, seeing him always out with friends made me want to do that too. But, I knew that I needed to balance fun and friends. I saw that by the choices Adam made as a high schooler hurt him as a college student. Instead of going forward to college to get started with finding a career, he had to get his GPA up and got to a community college. Adam had to work so much harder and spend a lot of extra money at things he could have done for free at Maine south. After seeing the outcome of Adams decisions, I chose to make school a big part in my life. I chose to think of my future ahead of time, and take the advantages I have during high school. It’s a small but big choice. Its small by just choosing to do homework each night and study for the tests to do well, but big in the way that all those little choices of focusing will help me do what I want to do for a career faster.
Looking back and seeing that just simply making the effort in school, I am now able to think of colleges I want to apply to when senior year comes. Knowing that I can plan on going to a a college instead of a community college right out of high school makes me feel happy and proud. I have a good high school background to show for myself and I have the confidence by making the right choice back then to know that I helped my self now. I guess Adams mistake helped me because it made me see all the benefits of doing well now and it made me take high school much more seriously than if he was a mediocre student that did well with no problems.