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Raven Harris

Bashford

Honors English 9

25 August 2016

Just Breathe

Five AM, my alarm clock screams at me(Personification), and leaves rings in my ear

drums.

“Today is the day.” I giggled to myself(Onomatopoeia). It was Monday July 25, and this

was the day I started high school. My body was electrified(Metaphor), and I sprang up as if I

was a kangaroo(Simile) and immediately got dressed. My white-striped, freshly ironed dress,

and my new brown sandals were already picked out the night before. After I put on my

remarkable outfit, I rushed downstairs to start burning curls into my straight hair(Metaphor). I

kept saying to myself,

“ High school is going to be easy for me”, and “ People will be nice to freshman if I get

lost, so I’m alright.” My mouth consumed my best-loved cereal, Lucky Charms. I was too excited

to finish the milk in the lonely bowl that was now marshmallow-less, and became a horse and

galloped back upstairs to begin my facial process.

“ I look so fetching!” I said to myself, as i looked in the mirror admiring myself. I was

completely ready for my high school experience to start, or so I thought. I got driven to the bus

stop, and I was unable to sit still in my seat. The school bus is not any different than it is in

middle school, or even elementary. I got off the school bus, and stepped onto the campus, I felt
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as if I am a new person. My friends met up with me at the cafeteria, and we talked about our

thoughts on school.

“ I am actually really nervous.” said Emma with a nervous tone in her voice.

“ Oh there is nothing to worry about Emma, high school is a breeze.” Ryann exclaimed,

and she went on and on about how high school was going to be for freshman. As the bell for

class rung out, all students became ants, and scrambled to find their class(Metaphor). Searching

for my class was a breeze, and the teacher was as sweet as apple pie(Similie) to everyone in the

hallway. Mr. Prothro is my AP World History teacher, and one thing that will be etched into my

brain about him is he will always play jazz music before every class period, and I see it as a way

for him to greet the students entering his classroom.

“ Good morning class, I am Mr. Prothro, and I am your AP World History teacher.” After

he stated this, he then explained who he was, how long he had been teaching, and what we will

be doing in class for the next year. He calls everyone by their last name, and we are treated as if

we are college kids. Next is second hour, and that is English, which is my best subject. She made

an outstanding first impression, and makes pretty bad jokes, but we all laugh anyways. The rest

of my schedule finished up as Dance, Spanish 1, Geometry, and Honors Biology. The first day of

school sped by like a racecar(Simile), and I enjoyed it very much.

The first week of high school, I had two quizzes, and I was not prepared for that at all

but, I tried my best. School has never been hard for me, I’ve never really had to work hard to

get good grade, it was just who I was. By the third week of school, I was starting to get less, and

less sleep, and became more stressed out. I had went from no honors classes, to all honors

classes, and that may have been the worst mistake of my life.
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“ School was always easy, why is it hard now?” I kept repeating myself as I stayed up

later each night, and waking up early the next morning. Every night had the same routine now,

as soon as I got home, and I think that may have stressed me out the most. Homework became

my number one priority, and that was not something I looked forward to. It was the third week

of school, Tuesday night, I was doing a project for one of my classes. I was unprepared, I was

tired, stressed, and I felt myself becoming anxious with the work that felt like would take years

to finish(Hyperbole). I did not stay up too late that night, and my project was turned in on time,

but the next night was inadequate. After school I immediately started on my homework,

because I had youth group that night. I got half way done with my project, took a break to ease

my mind, and got home at nine o’clock. I kept doing my project until midnight that night. All I

remember was me just breaking down at my computer. My face became hotter that the

summer sun that afternoon. My eyes teared up so much I could barely read the jumbling words

on the computer screen. My body shook as if i was a blender because I was having an anxiety

attack. The worst part is that I had to cry silently because my family was in the next room,

oblivious to what I was feeling.

“ I’ve never felt so much like a failure in my life.” I thought to myself. It was half-past

midnight and I finally went to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later to finish the project.

That morning, I still had tear marks on my face, my eyes looked like marshmallows, and

the bags under my eyes hung lower than my confidence that day. I turned in my finished

project that day, and almost all stressed was relieved as soon as it was completed.

That night, my innocent thoughts about high school had left me. It is not like ‘High

School Musical’ at all, and I can’t expect it to be(Allusion).

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There were two lessons I had learned after that night. The first is, I can’t have high

expectations for things that I have never experienced, because they could possibly not be filled,

and I will walk away disappointed. The lesson is procrastination. I am not a person who will

procrastinate, but on this project I did. Like I said before, school has always came easy to me, I

haven’t had to work to hard to get great grades. But this is high school, and grades do matter if

you want a successful future. I will always have to remember that “every cloud has a silver

lining”(Idiom), or when something bad happens, there is something that comes with it, and it

turns out to be good. And now I know what to expect this year, and I will know how to take it

on. If I ever get stressed, or anxious about projects I need to finish, I can always remind myself

to just breathe.
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