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Mary Ellen McVay

Mr. Jackson

English 101

1 January 2024

My 8th Grade Adventure

I did not attend public school until the second half of 8th grade. Starting at the new school

I had to learn many things from scratch. This was a very challenging time for me and through it,

I eventually succeeded in bringing my test grades from Ds and Fs to As. My parents being very

religious people thought that the public school system in California would corrupt me with their

beliefs. I was homeschooled mainly by my mom. While she is very intelligent, having one

person try to teach a child an entire curriculum by herself leads to some lacking details,

especially because I am the youngest of eight children, things were often overlooked. When I

turned 14, we had to move across the country because our house had been foreclosed on, and as a

young teen, this was very traumatic for me. To be successful, I had to learn grit, discipline, and

how to adapt. The grit to persevere and push through during tough times. The discipline to stay

focused and on track. And the ability to adapt to a new environment when all I had known was a

small town. It was a new world to me, and I needed to learn quickly if I wanted to succeed.

I needed grit; the ability to push through when everything seemed all too difficult. It was

easy to say that I needed grit, but it was an entirely different thing to put into practice. For

example, my first math test was a disaster I had no idea what I was doing and froze up; I ended

up getting an F on my test. As a 14-year-old it was a huge blow to my pride. I equated my value

to things I could do and achieve, and this took that pride and smashed it to pieces. Following

this, for the entirety of my first semester in 8th grade, I worked with my mom to do my math
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homework. Every night we went through each problem together so that I could catch up on what

everyone else already knew. It felt unfair that I was lacking while others already had everything

down. Of course, I was nervous, but I was excited to learn. It was tough, and I struggled a lot,

and yet I eventually succeeded in having an A by the end of the semester.

In contrast, being someone who was taught at home I had very little sense of what

discipline meant in terms of studying and behavior. To me, discipline was simply corporal

punishment dished out when I did something my parents didn’t like. In that sense, my dad was

never a very good example of discipline, for he very much lacked impulse control when it came

to everything, especially shopping. What I needed was self-discipline, the ability and drive to

plan things out and go through with them effectively. For example, I did not study enough for

my science midterm, and I got a D, so I was extremely disappointed in myself. I came home

from class sat my parents down and broke the news to them, my mom laughed it off and said it

wasn’t anything serious. While this relieved a lot of my anxiety about it, I still needed to fix my

grade, so throughout the rest of the semester, I memorized everything. Science has continued to

be a difficult subject for me but with hard work and discipline I can do very well in these classes.

Discipline I believe is something that needs to be continually worked on no matter what, as not

being disciplined can lead to devastating consequences.

My last point is that adaptability leads to more opportunities. For me, I had to learn very

quickly from everything going on around me. I needed to learn what was expected of me from

everyone, and as a result, I watched everything and everybody. To explain, on my first day of

class, I was overwhelmed by the number of people and how crowded it was, so not long after I

had a full-blown panic attack in the English classroom after everyone left for lunch. I felt alone

and unsupported, I don’t even remember if my teacher checked up on me, but from that point
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forward it was just my sister and I against the world. For context, I am one of a set of girl twins

and by this point, we had always been together. We went from a house with six bedrooms, four

bathrooms, and very large rooms, to a duplex with only three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It was

seven people crammed in there, and I needed to learn how to adjust to sharing a bathroom with

five people and their habits. It was difficult but with time and patience, I was able to adjust and

even be happy in my new environment.

In the long run, I needed the tenacity to break down walls I made for myself so that I

could succeed in challenging or frustrating classes. I needed the self-control to learn how to

make plans and carry them out. Lastly, I needed the flexibility to roll with the punches and adjust

to my environment. When life gets difficult having these skills is essential, for I could not

imagine living life without putting these into action. In essence, success to me is making plans,

following through, and adapting when needed. It also doesn’t have to be a straight path it can be

long and winding as long as goals are set, and plans are made to be followed through I feel

accomplished. It never truly ends until my death, before then I will do what I believe is best for

my happiness and my success.