Working Hard... Or Hardly Working

In 2002 I enrolled in Parkway Center City as a Freshman. Up until that point in my life I had never been one to study or really apply myself. I had always been one of the bright students (I'd been a MG student since I was in like 2nd or 3rd grade)-- You know the type that student who gets in trouble alot but always gets high grades so you can only complain but so much. Throughout Middle School I was lead to believe that High School was going to be a cruel and dark world where only the strong survive

BOY WAS I WRONG

I'll never forget when the first marking period came around and my dad came home with my report card. I thought I was gonna have a couple of A's Mostly B's and a C sprinkled in there somewhere but to my surprise I brought home straight A's. In all but one marking period that year I received straight A's with the exception period being a B and straight A's. For the most part my High School career went that way... Sophomore year was my teenage rebellion year (I also figured out girls then ;]) so I think I got my first C then. Junior year went back up to straight A's (The occasional B) and I took the SATs where I received a 1050 (on the 1600 scale) the first time and an 1150 the second and final time. Senior year was most of the same thing except I had this English teacher who was really difficult. Luckily for me he tripled as my AP English, English 4, and Multicultural Literature teacher so the one time that I would have had to apply myself I didnt because the work often overlapped between the 3 courses.

I graduated with a 3.8 GPA number 4 in my graduating class. I received Most Valuable Student Honors. My family, friends everyone was proud of me. I went to Temple on a Half Scholarship with the only stipulation being maintaining at least a GPA of 3.0...

Piece of Cake right???

Wrong. My first 3 semester went by similar to my years at Parkway except I brought home 3.0s and not 4.0s. 4th Semester I made the mistake on enrolling into an 8am class which I had to withdraw from before I failed. The next few semesters after that spiraled downhill. I lost my scholarship needless to say. I still managed to graduate in 4 years with a 2.7 GPA but I never could shake that habit of not really applying myself. I remember one final I had where I had to past and it was an 100 question all open-ended final (Crazy Right... Professors are so inconsiderate). The teacher was a complete devil he gave a 200 question study guide and said half of the questions were going to be on the final. I studied non stop that entire day before the final and I memorized the ENTIRE STUDY GUIDE questions and answers. I received a B+ on the final with the only questions I answered incorrectly being the ones that I answered incorrectly on the study guide. It was then that I realized that I've always been able to make it on the minial effort required and I had taken that mindset with my to college. That was the end of sophomore year and I would have undergone a major change but I had a dreadful summer and was depressed my next two semesters (You might learn why in subsequent posts). But since things had always come so easily and so non chalant to me I was now used to minimal effort bringing maximum results

I do not stand alone in people who made it through the Philly District and struggled in college because of improper training. 60 people were in my graduating class. 59 went to college. At least half dropped out of college within two years. Of the 30 that remained maybe 5 of us graduated on time. I know a guy whose 26 years old and graduated from University City and can hardly read or write literately. How can one receive a diploma if they can not read it. How do you make it out of high school no how do you make it out of ELEMENTARY SCHOOL if you can not read. How did I manage to excel so much at my work ethic and study habits. Changes needs to happen and it needs to happen soon.