Over my first year in Old Colony, I feel that I’ve grown a decent amount. Being completely honest with myself, I had high expectations for this school. I knew that Old Colony was considered by many to be the best high school in my area, and yet his high school was still able to exceed the expectations that I had. A few things were of course not fully expected; as all things can be when you have high expectations, but I still feel that this place absolutely bashed those expectations to the floor.

    At the very beginning of my school year I was really nervous. Going into an entirely new community of people is not really my kind of thing to do. I obviously feel much better about everything now, but I do still sometimes miss my middle school: mostly because of the memories that I’ve had there. I was relatively worried about basic interactions with new people, and I feel like my communication skills have now gotten better. Back in my school before this I had trouble even speaking to the people I had been in the same building with for seven whole years. Somehow though, being in a place where nobody really knew each other for the most part, I was able to make friends far more easily. I think that in the future going into new places with new people won’t be so difficult.

    I feel like academically, my skills in each of my classes have simply gotten better, there isn’t too much else to say about it. I didn’t really have any goals in academics either unless you count simply learning more than I already knew.

    When it came to exploratory classes, there were some I liked and some I disliked. I was nearly on-point with what I would like and dislike aside from Electronics Engineering. All that I flat-out disliked in exploratory were Cosmetology and Culinary, they just weren’t the thing for me with me being really bad at hands-on activities. Once again, the only real surprise was Electronics Engineering. In that shop I really felt like I had learned and accomplished some things that I didn’t know I was capable of, and I remember being relatively good at some of it as well. Aside from that though, none of my choices for possible shops were really affected. Out of the shops that I went through I chose Computer Science as I expected to.

    I really had no clue what to expect for my high school, I may have had high raised expectations, but I didn’t really know what they were. This was something completely new for me and I didn’t know how different from the life I was currently living it would be. Academics really didn’t change much from my current classes, all that was really flat-out unexpected from them was being in all honors classes. I would consider myself of an average intelligence for my grade but I didn’t really think I was deserving of honors. Nevertheless I’ll take what I can get for a better education. Shop on the other hand wasn’t expected or unexpected because I had no idea what shop might be like. Luckily, it was better than I could have possibly imagined; especially being in a class where going into it I knew over fifty percent of the people there.

    A few fond memories that I’ll have here are just having really dumb fun with my friends. It’s always the strangest and most out-there of experiences that I’ll remember the most fondly: most likely because they’re more interesting than others. When I think about memorable moments here, I immediately think about a partner activity in exploratory for my shop of choice: Computer Science. We had to make a house out of cards together without communicating verbally at all. At first things were normal and we had a certain amount or coordination going. I then stuck a random card on the front and we just started putting cards all over it. It ended up looking like some weird failed attempt at a shrine but that’s what made it so memorable. It was just a really unique and fun experience, and my words don’t really do it justice.

    Overall, throughout this year I’ve mostly been impacted by lessons from my English class, not to say I’m necessarily the most fond of that class, but I’ve learned a good deal from it. I’ve gotten much better with my writing skills and I’ve learned a lot of lessons to take with me into my future.

    If I could tell my younger self one thing it would probably just be reassurance that I’ll become better and better at the things I love to do and/or work on. I’ve always struggled in having confidence in myself, and at a younger age being able to see or at least hear about what I can do now I know that a younger me would be really happy.

    This school has really changed my way of thinking for the better. I have far more confidence and I feel better when I think about where I might be in the future. I think I’ve gotten a decent bit more friendly and possibly considerate towards those around me. I was already working on things like this last year but this year I’ve greatly progressed in those categories. When I now look at the world I think a lot more about how I have a sort of blank slate to do whatever I dream of, and with enough hard work and luck I can make it to that point that I wish for ever-so badly.

    In Sophomore year I imagined I didn’t expect things to be too different from Freshman year, and I don’t know whether I was right or wrong. During the year I learned a lot and I feel like I overall grew as a person. Sophomore year of high school at Old Colony had its ups and downs but I’m glad it happened in the end.

    Sophomore year gave me a lot of fond memories. I’m probably going to remember some of the things that happened this year for a long time. Last year was when I made new friends and this was the year that I grew those friendships. I feel like my time in shop was when I grew friendships the most. My shop is in a relatively small room and everyone knows each other pretty well so it is a really fun place to be. I’ve also had a lot of good memories with my assignments from shop. They can be really engaging and are normally really fun and feel more like puzzles than assignments. Plus the creativity you get can fuel your memories as it makes every situation feel unique and interesting. Academics has also been memorable because of my teachers this year. I’m not one to say who I might have disliked, which isn’t exactly anything, but most of my classes had good teachers who made classes memorable. Mr. Lewis’ class in particular was very memorable seeing as he was an overall great and funny teacher.

    Still talking about my teachers with Mr. Lewis in particular, a lot of lessons this year have had an impact on me. I was not exactly excited for geometry but I ended up loving it and learning a lot from it. Mr. Lewis also made the assignments fun so they were more enjoyable to work on. My English class also taught me a lot because of the books we read and their (life) lessons. I’ve learned a lot in shop this year because it was an AP course. This obviously made shop harder but it also felt more rewarding. I’m in Computer Science and I got to learn about the coding language Javascript in particular. It could be annoying at times but it was very interesting.

    If I could tell my younger self one thing it might be just to not worry. This year I’ve grown a lot more confident in myself and while I still struggle in some areas I wish I could be more like that going into the year. I was nervous for a lot of assignments and now I sort of just suck it up and get it over with.

    In Sophomore year I was really able to finally come to terms with the fact that I don’t think I’ll every get my dream job in animation seeing as I don’t really enjoy doing it. As much as a job like that would be really cool, I enjoy coding a lot more and could tell the same stories I want to tell in animation through different mediums. My personality still ended up the same as in the beginning but Freshmen year was really where I started to like who I was so I’m alright with that.

    I’m very glad I was able to experience sophomore year of High School and I’m sure I’ll remember it for a long time.

    In my Junior year my class started using the knowledge we learned for greater things. We still had our average simple coding assignments, but we branched out into both game design, and a more professional level of web design most notably. In academics I also started learning more complex topics like reaching Algebra II, and a more modern area of history for example.

    Academics is the easiest to talk about so I can start there. I feel like In my Junior year I started really trying to step up my game in the work I did. I had always struggled to pay attention in class and while Junior year was no exception I feel like I really started to get better at it. I also tried as much as I could to go above and beyond on my projects for both my own enjoyment and for success in my classes. I felt more captivated by the subjects I learned in Junior year than I had in any year prior, especially because I had my favorite group of teachers I’d ever had.

    My work in Computer Science was the main attraction of Junior year though. I got to finally begin game design which is the reason I wanted to go through Computer Science in the first place. While game design went in and out of being a hard or easy subject to learn throughout the year, I felt happy with where I was ending it off. I got to learn how to make things from simple games like a breakout game with a ball and a paddle to more complicated games like 2D side scrollers and top-down RPGs. During my free time I also got to experiment with my own knowledge of game design to create my own games. Also involving coding, I got to learn Java, which was honestly really fun and intuitive to work with. My DDM of Junior year was also written in Java and it felt like a combination of everything I had learned that year.

    In web design my class started making more professional websites. We learned how to make websites for companies and also learned the basics of a website builder so that we would understand how to create a template website for a company to edit with that same builder. We also had a lot of group projects in web design this year which really helped us understand exactly how to design a website on a team. This was a good practice because alongside teamwork, it also taught us what exactly we were good at in web design as individuals.

    Junior year was a great year of High School for me and it was able to teach me a lot about Computer Science as a whole, alongside helping me improve myself academically.

    Senior year of high school is where everything I’ve learned over my time at Old Colony started coming together. Most assignments I’ve worked on this year of High School have had practical usage in the real world, and my final year of high school has really prepared me for a career in Computer Science. My academics classes have also reached a more advanced rank, with the two AP classes I took this year for Pre-Calculus and Literature & Composition.

    Academics has gotten to a point where I feel like I’ve improved enough that most classes have gotten a lot easier to focus on. I feel like I do a fine job in every subject I’m put into, and even if I start out rough with a certain topic, by the time I’m done with it I always find myself fully understanding what I’m doing and being proficient in it. I do best in classes like Pre-Calculus and Physics since my brain tend to work logically, but classes like Literature & Composition and Civics are able to get me thinking and discussing topics with my peers.

    In Computer Science, we’ve stepped up our game to making real fully-functioning programs for industry-usage. We haven’t made them for anything specifically, but the goal has been to make them practical in that sense. I’ve also continued in game design and web design, where I’ve started learning how to make 3D games, and I got to learn more about WordPress and its different plugins that I can use in an actual web design career.

    My expended knowledge in the web design department has been especially convenient because this year I also got a co-op position that I plan to continue in past high school. This position helps me improve on my existing knowledge, while also giving me real work experience. It’s been an incredibly positive experience for me to finally feel like I’m making a mark in the world with a real job in the career I’ve been preparing myself for for the entirety of high school. This kind of payoff is what made my experience here entirely worth it.

    Senior year of high school has had some tough changes at times, but I’ve made my way through them and grown as a person just as I have through the rest of my high school career. Old Colony has taught me a lot about how to improve myself socially and academically, alongside giving me an amazing skillset that I can use in a real life setting. I’ve been accepted into UMass Dartmouth where I plan to continue my education, and I’m leaving this school feeling ready for the next big step in my life.