Being a consistent honor student ever since Kindergarten has always been my pride and honor.

I
may not rank first, but I always made it to the list. Every year, my parents, but mostly my mom,
would come up to the stage and put on my medal. Maintaining to be on the list wasn’t much
pressure. My parents never pressured me to be on the honors list. I only do things based on how I
perform in school. No too much effort, just the usual way on how I act on it. This has been the
way I live for 12 years, not until a tragic event happened in my life that changed the way I view
my life.

It was a sunny day of October 15. I was rushing to school because I was almost late and I still need
to pass by an internet café to print something. My mind was so occupied of many things, one is
that I was running late, and second, I was frustrated that my things were slowing me down since it
was the day that all of the performance tasks of all subjects are needed to be submitted. Because
my mind was so occupied, I didn’t notice that I was already crossing the street. I stopped midway
when I heard a honk of the car approaching me, and it was driving too fast that it was too late. The
car hit me and I flew a few meters away to where I was standing. All I remembered was people
rushing towards me and everything went black.

I didn’t know what happened after, to where were the papers I was holding or who and what
brought me to the hospital. I woke up a week later. When I woke up, my mind was blank that I
didn’t know what to think of. Until now, I don’t clearly remember what happened when I was at
the hospital or why I only woke up a week later, maybe I refused to know what happened or my
family just didn’t want to mention about the accident. All I knew was that I had a car accident,
nothing more, nothing less.

I didn’t go to school for two months because of the fractures and bruises I attained. However, I
didn’t only got physical injuries but as well as trauma. During those times, I was so afraid with
cars that I needed two people beside me as I cross the street or I can't be left alone in the sidewalks.
I endured those things for a year before I got fully recovered.

I went back to school in January of the following year so a new quarter started. For the performance
tasks that I failed to submit, our school has a special computation in regards to performance tasks
that weren’t submitted due to valid reasons. The new quarter started smoothly but later, I noticed
that I was falling behind my classmates and for the first time in my life, I got a grade below 85.
Not to be exaggerated but 85 is the cut off grade per subject to be part of the honors list. At first, I
thought that I could do better next quarter but my performance was really falling back. I felt so
down that I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, my mom brought me to a beach to relax and took
the opportunity to look back and realize some things.

I realized that we only get to appreciate things when they’re gone. I admit that I only took my
academics for granted because I was so sure that I can still be on the honors list. However, after
hitting rock bottom, I realized that we should appreciate the things that were given to us. Though
grades are important, it doesn't entirely define what we can be in the future. It may have affected
me, but I always have chances to get up and start anew. And from those things that I realized, it
gave me motivation to work double time and get back on track, and with hard work and
determination, I still made it to that honors list that school year.