3 Years and Counting

To many, TPAA is a school. To those special few, TPAA is a home away from home; I know it is to me. I came to TPAA about 3 years ago, reluctant of course.

I was originally planning on going to Palmdale High until my parents thought it would be better for me to be here in The Palmdale Aerospace Academy. In the beginning, it was a bit hard. I started TPAA in 9th grade, this meant I wasn't one of the original kids that started in 8th grade. Now this meant a lot of things for me: A) I'm the new kid, B) if I want to find friends I would have to invade an already established group, and C) All the STEM classes the 8th graders took means more catching up to do for me. The few first days were rough. I had to deal with finding a place to sit, a class that I never took before (STEM), and overall harder work, but after the first week everything went great. I soon understood STEM and how it works, and I even found friends that are still with me to this day. I, in the beginning, was afraid, but after a few days everything fell into place.

Now, Sophomore year was strange. I was used to everything and how the school worked, but one thing that caught me off guard was the standard that the school has when it came to school work. Freshman year school work was quick and simple-- ten minutes at least, yet Sophomore year school work took hours.The change caused my grades to go from high, to medium, to low all together. To combat this, I had to prepare beforehand. For example, using a planner to schedule the dates of tests, asking teachers thousands of questions, and time management were key factors of studying in my case. This meant I would have to chose, when I’d get home from school, if I wanted to play video games or stay after school to work more. I never had to do this before, so the change was hard, but soon I learned that this was just an everyday routine which all students were used to. The great thing was, due to all the hard work I put into studying, I scored a 30/33 on my Math final, my best Math score to this day. Now it’s my Junior year and every now and then I catch myself saying, “That's due?!”-- mostly on school projects.

But now, as I am fastly approaching my Senior year, I'm quite excited. I'm excited for what the future will bring. From a new school, to working towards college, and towards my future. From the start of my first year-- getting used to change, to changing myself in my second year, and now working as hard as I can in my third year, so my final year in high school can be the best.