Number 1 would have to be when I graduated High School. I was one of the worst students in my class my junior year(mainly because of laziness, but whatever
). Even still, I felt that I was better than other students who gave their all just to get an A.
So when it came to pick electives for the year, I chose AP Literature (aka College-level English)so that I could get what I thought were easy college credits. Later that year, I'm in summer school for Algebra 1B
.
Anyways, I get into my senior year and I'm feeling myself. The first month of AP Lit was easy asf and we had just started 'Grendel'. This is when I realized I fukked up. I SEVERELY underestimated how incredibly boring 'good' books are and couple that with my ADD and just overall laziness and god-tier procrastination skills and you have me with my grade dropping to a 45/F
.
I'm freaking out and then decide to get on the ball somewhat. Some more months pass and I'm still failing. Come time for the grade cut off date, I'm still failing
. My mom finds out that I'm about to fail school and has a mental breakdown because she's worried that only her youngest child would be able to walk the stage i.e graduate without summer school. My dad had put it in her head that she was a failure of a mom years before and it had always stuck with her and motivated her to do better than her best.
Something about just seeing your mom burst out in tears just makes you feel like absolute shyt, man. It makes it worse just knowing that you're the cause of her crying...
At this point, I'm busting my ass to get any points possible to raise my grade from 55/F to a 60/D. I'm turning in late assignments and dropping poems in like a week. I finally manage to raise my score, but it's only risen 2 points
. The only thing that can pass me is my final exam...
Passing the exam entailed me dropping at least a 7 on the written portion of the exam(mind you that about 54% of AP Students managed to pass the story that I was given). I had never gotten more than a 5 of ANY of the mock exams that I had been given. I thought I was done for. I never pray and promised myself that if I needed some shyt to happen, I would make it on my own accord. No matter what the result, I wanted to know that I had given it my all.
Turns out that a nikka dropped a 7 on the prompt
. I had made it to graduation
.
I remember the Sunset from graduation day like it was yesterday. It was a cherry red sky with orange clouds dancing around in a cacophony of movement.
This was a somewhat similar looking sunset.
I cried when I got home because I had fulfilled mine and my mother's dreams. A couple days before, my mom had given me my granddad's American Flag from his Army days in Vietnam. He had died the year before and he always said that I was his favorite grandchild
.
To this day, I still have that flag and a medallion that my High School principal had given me(and everyone else) as good luck charms..
Here's the flag:
