The First Day of School*

Here I am sitting in my seat trying to pay attention in class while my friend Elliott is talking to me about what I think about math.

I answer: “I think it's cool what about you?”

Elliot says: “I don’t like math and it's hard to do.”

I tell him: “it is not hard you just got to think of the process of the problem.”

As I say that he turns and looks at the paperwork we were assigned, and he starts to work on it while I am just staring off into the distance waiting for class to be over. As class ends and were supposed to give our assignments to the teacher, I start to hurry and answer questions the best I can while barely looking in the text for answers. I had handed in my assignment not knowing what was going to happen and what grade I was going to get. As I am at home, I just sat watching T.V. wondering should I have asked to do the assignment at home or was it the right thing to do. I go to school the next day just like normal sitting at my seat doing the assignment that we were doing as a group and just playing when it was time for recess but as soon as I got home, I came back to parents that did not look happy.

I walk up to my mom and ask: “What's going on mom?” As I asked that question my eyes immediately look over at her hand that had my report card.

I look back at my mom and she just said: “Durango you have got to work on your assignments so that you can have a great career in the future.” I felt terrible knowing that so as the day passed, I just looked around for my friends and hung out with them but to a certain time so that I pay close attention to the notes that we would take for tests and certain assignments.

As I am working on my assignment, I see growth in my work that I have never seen before because I paid close attention to what my mother had said. If I want to have a good career, I must put my all into it so that I can achieve this. As I got home that day after experiencing great growth in study, I asked my mom if I could see my report card from that day and she Obliged. As I investigate my report card, I see F’s to C’s as I am looking at this, I feel disappointed in myself because I just let my grades go from the top of a mountain to the bottom of a volcano. But after looking at them I just went back to my room and did my homework. After I am finished with my homework I go up to my mother and say thanks for helping me with my thinking when it came to working on assignments.

My mother responded: “Your welcome Durango but don’t worry or overthink when you're working on assignments.”

I respond with: “Ok mom I'll keep that in mind.”

Near the end of the school year, I ended up getting all A’s on each subject in my class. But till this day I still have A’s because of the decision I made and that was when I decided to work hard and study because if I have anything under an A I feel terrible. But because of my mother's words she gave me encouragement to work harder and not to give up trying on the things you like doing.