Essay Sample on My High School Years: A Time of Growth & Learning

My time in high school was a very interesting period in my life. I experienced some highs and lows, but if I had to do it all over again, I would not change a thing. The lessons I learned when I experienced failure have equipped me for life after high school, whether or not I go to college. Academic work equipped me with the tools to think beyond my narrow self-interest. On the other hand, the social aspect of my high school has helped me mature emotionally. All this to say that my time in high school has been instrumental in shaping who I am.

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In high school, I was viewed as a young adult. I had a degree of autonomy never experienced before. With it came responsibility for my conduct in school, at home, and other aspects of social life. For instance, my teachers expected that students in my high school would make themselves familiar with the coursework and meet deadlines. They accepted no excuses. Life in high-school was regimented in a way that I had not experienced in middle school. In turn, I learned how to do academic research as well as engage in critical thinking to solve problems.

I learned how to be an effective communicator so that I can share my feelings, thoughts, opinions, or information I collect from other people. My literacy skills were enhanced in high-school. I had to read and understand a wide array of academic sources concerning different academic fields to pass my exams. High school gave me the skill of reading comprehension as I had to understand, interpret, and appreciate the information contained in the academic literature assigned by teachers. Critical thinking was also a skill I acquired in class.

Gaining writing skills is something I view as a positive step in my academic life. Surviving high school required that I am capable of expressing myself in a coherent way through essays and research papers. Compared to my freshman year, I have grown as a writer. I have moved away from being a student who just writes for the sake of writing to a senior who first develops a thesis whenever I have to tackle a matter and then crafting the contents of what I put down on paper around that thesis. My teachers were essential in my academic journey. They used grading rubrics to make me pick up the habit of avoiding grammatical errors.

My time in high school has helped me not only to know how to pinpoint problems but also to solve them alone or in conjunction with others. The high school has also taught me to be cautious but not to keep the company of negative people. I learned that sometimes, a person needs to be assertive and ambitious. My social life in high school taught me that people with a generally negative disposition would shake your faith when you are determined to do something to better yourself.

Ever since I was young, nature has always fascinated me. The net result has been that during my years in high school, I took an interest in pursuits that fed this passion for the natural world. It is no surprise then that my favorite subjects were biology and environmental sciences. The coursework in these two subjects made me access information about the natural world while at the same time building my social skills when doing group projects with fellow classmates.

For instance, I joined a youth leadership program during my sophomore year that involved a fair bit of hiking and camping. It gave me the chance to learn leadership skills while out in the wild. One of the program's requirements was that I spend a week camping and hiking with peers from all over the state. I had to not only learn about nature but environmental protection as well before proceeding to make presentations to the group I was embedded in. I acquired the basic skills to be a leader as well as that of public speaking. Later, the Community Project class became a conduit for teaching my classmates about nature and why I feel so strongly about global warming along with environmental protection.

In summary, my time in high school was both challenging and exciting. During this period in my life, the skills that I have acquired make me confident that my transition to adulthood will be relatively smooth. It is fair to say that high school molded me into who I am today.