Engel 1

George Engel
Mr. Conrad Expository Rdg/Writ
ERWC Personal Statement
8/19/15
If Only I Were Two Years Earlier
Moving is always hard. Having to leave friends behind, having to make new ones, and
being forced to adjusting to the area really makes the whole process quite the emotional
whirlwind. As but one of the many to go through this particular struggle, I found myself in a
rather unique predicament, as aside from the slight emotional turmoil that is commonly
associated with moving which I was experiencing, I also found myself far behind in school,
having moved in the middle of my sophomore year from a tiny no nothing school in the central
valley to where I am now at El Dorado. Despite the intimidating gap that lay between me and my
new fellow students, I somehow found myself determined to catch up, and was lucky enough to
have amazingly helpful and encouraging teachers for the first time in my life.
So beginning with the move, my parents had been dreaming of leaving the county of
Merced ever since we moved there from Lodi when I was only four years old. Even at the young
age of four, I still remember the disappointment upon leaving lodi and upon arriving at our new
home in Merced, as the land was hard,dry, and flat not to mention I could hardly bare to breath
with the stagnant air which looked almost as bad as it tasted. Given these conditions youd think
it would be favorable to move, given my family had literally been looking forward to leaving all
of the 12 years we lived there, yet this was not the case? The reason behind this being, behind all
the boring landscape, terrible air, and even more terrible, horrible, backstabbing people, I had
still managed to find friends. At this point in my life, I remember my parents telling me they had

Engel 2

officially sold our house, (Having told me three days after they had actually closed the deal)
which for whatever reason absolutely crushed me internally. If it had been only two years sooner
my little sister and I would have been absolutely overjoyed! We would have happily left and spat
in the dust behind us as we sped away to a land of new opportunity, but alas my earthly ties
prevented me from ascending to greater opportunistic heights until I had firmly dealt with the
chains which bound me. All the while well I was trying to make heads or tails of how I felt, my
parents where there wondering why my little sister and I were suddenly so miserable. We had
been begging for this for years and suddenly, because it had come at a time which seemed
inconvenient to us, we rebelled against it. I realize now of course how truly selfish this attitude
was, and how unfair it must of seemed to my parents. Yet at the time it seemed completely
justified to my little sister and myself, hence persisting for months.
Once we had actually moved, around about a week before Christmas, my little sister and
myself finally began to crack down our defenses, as we had to admit, the general area was an
evidently extreme improvement. The landscape and general region was full of beautiful rolling
hills, mountains, trees that were actually the proper color and more than ten feet tall, and it felt as
though we were on a camping trip of some sort. Our house, although smaller, was of much better
quality, rather than the larger but cheaply built house on an acre plot we had prior to our new
home. But alas, our protest continued to persist out of sheer stubborn nature despite our constant
messaging with friends lasting only about a week, as christmas came around and rendered them
all busy with celebration and they were quick to forget us, and so we were forced to settle into
our new home. A few weeks later, we managed to pull ourselves together a couple of days before
school started. With the help of our parents scoldings we were able to realize the great new
opportunity that had been laid out in front of us. After all, where my sister and I had used to go to

Engel 3

school had been a good enough education for the area and all, but still was considered a pretty
crummy school in comparison at large. This being the case I looked into the local schools and
chose El Dorado High as the future of my education and social nurturing. However I greatly
underestimated just how much of an improvement my new school was, until that inevitable first
week of the second semester of school. I had been taking advanced classes at my previous
schools, which I had found to be dead simple, with no real challenge and teachers who chose
favorites and rewarded those who brought them coffee in the morning with an A in the class no
despite how little they knew of the subject by the end of the year. So its only natural I would feel
suddenly out of my element and overburdened. However, I thought at Eldo, I had finally found to
my delight that it was the more serious academic environment that I had been craving for so
long. In an eager thirst for knowledge I jumped into the fray only to find to myself stupefied at
how little my previous schooling had taught me and how behind I was. For crying out loud, I
hadnt even so much as heard of MLA formatting before. Only then did I truly realize the
tremendous gap I must close in order to maintain the classes I was in. This was true not only for
english, but almost every one of my classes. Algebra 2 especially, as at my previous school we
went through a rough patch where we lacked a math teacher for 6 to 8 weeks and literally had to
teach ourselves; to little avail if any of course.
Any sane person put in the same situation probably would have just switched to easier
classes, to decrease the weight of the burden. Although my stubborn nature, hatred of the idea of
giving up a semester's worth of work, and personal belief against quitting once having commit
myself all led me to persevere and struggle through to the bitter end. As is, and always has been
in my nature to do so. And oddly enough, looking back I dont regret it one bit. Mostly Because I
managed to pull it off with passing grades, but more so because of the knowledge I obtained in

Engel 4

doing so-I actually came out of the class feeling like I had learnt something of value, and it felt
magical, as though I had leveled up and could suddenly handle any course no matter the
difficulty. Of course it wasn't solely based on natural ability and perseverance. I owe a lot to the
teachers that helped guide me through it all and worked hard to get me caught up. They truly
inspired me (specifically my english teacher) to resist the temptation of simply giving up. Not
that I had it in mind to do so either way, simply that I found it encouraging to know that I had
people believing in me for a change, and it honestly made a world of difference in my overall
outlook of the situation.
No longer was I so depressed and emotional about the move, as I had made new friends,
and found new goals. I was finally given something to focus on, something to strive for, and
realized to be thankful and take hold of the opportunities given to me. In a sense, this new
outlook opened up all kinds of possibilities for me, and has continued to help me mature and
grow as a person over the years, as I continue to reflect on my past self, and attempt to learn and
improve.