Trials & Tribulations of a 3% Child

They say you don't realize what you have until its gone, what's even more interesting enough is we all know this and still, no matter how much you think you appreciate something you really don't appreciate it enough until its stripped away. So here I am at this new school thought to be a worst school than the one I was at and the one my mother wouldn't let me go to that my brother attended. I quickly adapted into the culture simple because I was good at sports and once again I knew a couple people there because of football. Outside of that, the environment there was not the best for positive growth. I can't remember a single teacher from being there nor direct positive lesson I may have learned while I was there. Outside of that, I really felt as though I was just passing time because I had no intentions on staying there past that school year. So I didn't really try and build relationships with many people. Although I think getting arrested made me less of a target for getting picked on, I also think it made the teachers avoid me as well. Regardless of my intelligence, they already made up their minds of what kind of kid I was, therefore that may be the reason I may not even remember them.

I eventually made it back to my old school for 8th grade and was very appreciative for the opportunity. However, when I returned I didn't expect what was awaiting. I was somehow thrust into the most popular circle and I guess I felt as though I had an image to upkeep so once again I maintained my somewhat bad boy image. Still very intelligent and making good grades I was always quick to seize a chance to make a scene if one presented itself. I became very good at getting people to leave me alone when I didn't want to be bothered as well as getting teachers to see things my way. This was the year I also became very popular with the other gender as well for many different reasons. While I wasn't the baddest kid in the school, some may say I may have ran with the baddest circle so I guess that would be the coolest in kid terms.

I thought life was great at this point. I was on the school's basketball team although I didn't play as much as I would have liked. I had a great season of football with the neighborhood team. I was doing a lot with different P.A.L. teams. I actually had a real girlfriend who I really like as well. Although she was a little younger than me, I never attempted to take advantage of her and interestingly enough, we ended up breaking up because of that I think. I ended up getting a lot of attention from many other females whom none became anything serious or more than a fling. I grew into this ultra persuasive person who knew how to manipulate people to most times get my way. I knew what to say, how to carry myself, and what would be needed to get others to agree, go along with, or see things my way. I didn't think anything could go wrong and I couldn't have been any more wrong.

In the city you can have many options as far as high schools you attend. Although you have to apply to attend schools, you still have several automatic neighborhood schools you can choose from. This is very entertaining for some people and others could care less. Athletes based their decisions solely on the winning reputation of the school for the sport they desired to play. Me being an athlete, that's all I cared about. So in Philly the main football schools at the time were Northeast, Washington, Mastbaum, Dobbins, Germantown, Frankford, Bartram and Ben Franklin. I wanted to attend either Northeast or Washington. Growing up I wanted to attend Germantown because that was the program I was around the most. The only way I would attend there was if I attended Lankenau which was the "smart" chapter of the school. I never had plans on attending Germantown because of previous incidents that occurred there that tarnished my thoughts of the school. So I applied to a number of schools and what I got back was flat out ridiculous, funny and interesting all at the same time.

While many people got there letter in the mail which was about 1 page with a number of schools they could go to, I got if I recall properly 2/3 pages with just about every school in the public league on there. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, because it was a ton of schools I didn't even apply to that were on there. Schools which made me laugh were schools such as CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts), E&S (Engineering and Science), Parkway, Masterman, and FLC, simply because none of these schools had football teams. The most ridiculous thing was that Girl's High was on there, like seriously, I could have went to Girl's High. What caught me off guard and became another learning lesson in my young life was the fact that Lankenau wasn't on the list. I thought there was something wrong so I looked into it and was informed that while I had the academic criteria needed to attend the school, my behavioral record made me ineligible. I was somewhat discouraged but didn't care because I had many other options, or so I thought.