Whence you are old enough, you have to go school, so says the laws of society. Most people will spend 12 or 13 years of their lives in mandatory school and then have the option to go to school for another two to four years after that. By the time you graduate you’ve spent upwards of 80% of your life in school, with only a few months of every year. School changes people as they go through it, day by day, slowly becoming different people than they previously had been. School life covers multiple big changes in your life, such as making your first connections with strangers, and of course, puberty. In this paper, I shall endeavor to inform you, the reader, of how I, the author, have changed throughout my time in school, with an excerpt from each of my years at school so far.
My first year at school was a tough year. I had just moved to a new part of the city, from the East End to Fort Garry.  Luckily for me, I was signed up to go to a daycare over the summer, and a few of my classmates went to that same daycare, so I knew a few of the people in my class. Since we spent time at school, before school, and after school together, all of the people that went to the daycare became good friends, but we basically ignored the other people in our class for the first weeks.  Later in school one of us moved to Jasper, his name was also Jasper so we joked about it. Of the nine people that went to that school from kindergarten to grade 9, five of us went to this daycare together for the first few years, bringing us all together, having an understanding of one another.  We all spent more time together than the rest of the class for the first few years of school, but after we all left the daycare we only spent a lot of time together at school.
Grade one, the first year of real school, was rather boring. All that we learned was basic words and basic math, both of which I had mastered at home with my parents. My dad had taught me up to grade ten biology and chemistry already, and up to grade seven maths at this point. Because of this I was, extremely bored every day, and ended up getting in trouble very often. I got sent to the office almost every day of the year during grade one. Because of this, I became good friends with all the people on the office staff. We saw each other so often that instead of greeting each other we would tell each other new jokes. The principal especially enjoyed hearing new jokes when he saw me, and would sometimes go out of his way to see me during lunch time or recess just to tell jokes. This helped me get along with adults, and not be scared of them. I knew that everybody that I didn’t know, were also people, and most of them could become friends if I wanted to be friends with them, and put in the effort to become friends with them.
By grade two my homeroom teacher thought that I was a disruption in class, so I got sent to the library to do my own thing for more than half my classes. At the Library, I became friends with the librarian, who let me stay there when she was teaching classes. Because all the classes she taught were grade nine classes, I got a small idea of what high school classes were like, even in grade two, though I only learned about math and French. This gave me a huge advantage in math over all the other students during my time at that school, though I would rather attribute it to natural understanding. I didn’t really like French, at all, but I learned enough basic French to be able to read a few easy French books, despite this my worst class from grade one to grade nine was consistently French class. I have found that I am rather poor at learning new languages, having a bad grade in grade ten Spanish as well, so I blame my poor grades in secondary language courses entirely on myself.
Grade three was fairly similar to grade two, in that I had the same teacher who still thought I was a disruption to the class. But this time, they didn’t send me to the library, instead, they sent me to a spare room in the school and let me build sets of Lego. I only really went to classes that weren’t in the homeroom, so I had missed another year of main classes. This was not a big deal academically for me, I still got most of the highest grades in the school for every year, instead, the issue was the social interactions. I had missed three early years of talking with people. I became socially awkward and had trouble making new friends after this. The majority of my friends that I have made are just people that happen to spend time in the same place as me, and that I could tolerate enough to not just find somewhere else to go. I’ve made very few friends because I wanted too, and this, I would say, is the main reason.
My grade four-year was my redemption year, for my grade four-year I put in extra effort to staying in class. I still got sent out of class very often, having the same teacher as I had the previous two years, but I managed to get at least five days a month that I didn’t get kicked out of class, be it to the office, the library, or some other arrangement. Other than talking to people I didn’t learn anything in class, so I felt that staying in class had no point for me, I just decided to stay in class because my mom seemed happy when she heard that I wasn’t getting sent out of class every single day. Because of this, I tried to stay in class, no matter how boring it was. Throughout the year I still got sent to the office more than anybody else in the school had, but I got sent many fewer times than I had been sent there in previous years. I learned that the problem was, in fact, not just that the teacher hated me with great intent, but that I just got bored too easily in class.
By grade five I was finally back to going to normal classes, but I was still not learning anything in them. I had just learned to not be as much of a disruption to classes well enough at this point to not be kicked out at all, this combined with finally having a new teacher allowed me to stay in the class every day. The only classes that I really liked going to at this point were music class and gym class. I had a natural talent for gym class, I was the second best athlete in the school for everything we did. The school took us to a track and field qualifier for gym class, everybody had to participate in at least one event. I joined the ball throw, shot put, 100-meter dash, and long jump. I missed the long jump because it conflicted with the times that ball throw and shot put were going on, and I didn’t hear the event get called to go there. I got third place in the ball throw and 100-meter dash, and I don’t remember how I did in shot put. However, I was sick during the day that we were supposed to go to the next level of qualifiers, so I was forced to stop with just those placings.
Grade six was the first year that my school did what most would call optional classes, like foods, outdoor education, and computer sciences. Of course, in grade 6 these classes weren’t actually optional, we just got to rotate through the classes one at a time, spending two months taking each, getting an idea of how the class worked, and what it was about. Of the classes we took, I was most intrigued with the foods and nutrition class. I liked that I could make meals that I had seen other people make, with moderate levels of success. Because of this class, I have taken foods and nutrition as one of my option courses every chance I’ve had, from grade 8 to grade 11, and I am taking it again next semester in grade 12. I enjoy learning new recipes, and the skills that I developed in the class are actually practical. By taking the class I get to have recipes and the skills needed to make them when I need to.
Grade seven was a change in the school scheduling, before grade seven all of the classes were either in a specialty room, like gym and foods, or in your homeroom, and they were all taught by either a specialty teacher or your homeroom teacher. In grade seven the system changed to represent a more high school like scheduling system, you went to homeroom for attendance, then you would go to your classes, and all the classes were taught by their own teacher, who actually knew the subject. This allowed grade seven to be the first year that we had the option to take band or art class, though in reality, everybody took both classes. I played the tuba in band class, and could keep a beat well enough to not stand out, but I didn’t practice very much and didn’t enjoy the time we spent in the band room. Because of this, I ended up taking Art class for grade eight and nine instead of Band class a decision that I do not regret at all. Art class didn’t require me to practice, learn anything new, or carry my instrument anywhere.
Grade eight was the first year that I had been kicked out of class in since grade four. However, this time things were different. This time, I got kicked out of class for answering too many of the questions, and not giving other people a chance to answer them. This happened a few times throughout the year, and change dhow I acted in school. Instead of giving answers that I knew, I could just mumble them under my breath, and wait for somebody else to answer the questions. I would rarely answer anything that wasn’t directed at me in class after this year. This was a stark contrast to before this year, when I would give all the answers I knew, regardless of circumstance. I feel that since I’ve stopped answering all the questions in every class I have lost confidence in my answers as well, so now not only do I not answer questions to stay in class, but I also don’t answer them to avoid being wrong, even if I know that my answer is correct. This behavior has been reinforced throughout high school as well, not because they would kick me out of classes, but because I knew an answer more accurate than the teacher wanted.
Grade nine was my last year at my first school, the school I had gone to since kindergarten. I had no idea what to expect from my last year of school. The school had gone through many changes since I began going there, but I remembered them all, I was there for all of them. I had many memories of the school, and the people there, but I was leaving for a new school after this year. In my last year of school, they built a track around the back field of the school, to be used in later years. The “opening” of the track was on the news, and we had our final award ceremony right before the opening. I, being the student with the most days of attendance at the school at the time, had the privilege to cut the ribbon and represent the school to the investors, and whoever else was at the opening. This was the first time I got to be part of a real opening ceremony, and I really didn’t like it very much, so I decided after this that I would achieve much less than I had during my previous years of school.
Grade ten was my first year at a new school, something that I had not had the pleasure to experience since kindergarten. Vincent Massey is a much bigger school than my previous school was, so when I first came inside I was, a bit overwhelmed, but that subsided. I liked that the first days of school weren’t real school, but instead picture days. This gave me time to meet other people in my grade, and find the lay of the land. I didn’t do that first thing, though, instead, I just found somebody I knew from my old school and spent the morning with him. We explored the school to find every route to all our classes, in hopes of not getting lost the following days. Despite this, I did get lost on my first day, not because I didn’t know where everything was, but because I misread my schedule, I went to my period 4 class during period 3, but I figured things out before too long.
My second year at in high school, grade eleven, and this year changed how I treated going to school quite a bit. In previous years of school, I would just wake up, go to school, go home, eat dinner, and go to bed, with various things to stave off boredom in between the steps. But in Grade eleven I joined the Asian Pop Culture Club and found people that I knew from my old school and people that I didn’t know. But I enjoyed going to school much more when I started going to Asian Pop Culture Club. Instead of just going to school because I had to, I had something to look forward to, seeing the people I was friends with, instead of just seeing people that I had spent class time with.  Most of my friends live in different countries, so being able to actually talk to people that I consider friends was something that I had not experienced for many years. I looked forward to going to school, even if only for that one part, it was still better than nothing.
Grade twelve had been a tough year so far. I have had to change a few of the habits I developed in grade 10 and 11, namely not doing my work to a decent level because this year counts. Grade 12, being my last year of school, forces me to do my work, and do it to a level beyond two sentence answers to everything. This year was my first time taking a test that I actually cared about my results for, the provincial exam. I never really cared about my grades, and just coasted from kindergarten to grade 11, but for grade 12 my marks mattered. I couldn’t just wing everything anymore. This was a totally different feeling for me. And most importantly, I was nervous about how I did on my exam. This was the first time I’ve felt nervous about anything in school, of course I know that I’ve already passed the course, but how I did on the exam can determine whether or not I get the option for direct entry courses in university, or have to go through university 1.
Throughout my time at school, I have had many experiences, some pleasant, some, less so. Overall I enjoyed my time at school, and wouldn’t change it if I had the chance to. During my school days, I have changed as a person, greatly. Nearly 70% of my life has been part of my school days, so it is no surprise that I have changed so much. In the years I have spent going to school, I have learned to deal with isolation and loneliness, I have developed unique skills, many lacking in use, but I have also learned all the basics required throughout life, I should think. I have made new friends, lost old allies, coasted through life, learned not to coast, and most importantly, learned so many useless things in school. These stories were only small sections of my school days, but they say that a little goes a long way in life.