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Image from Harper College

Here is where my school world tour is currently at. So far it's going much better than how my experience at UIUC went. At UIUC I started off by getting B's and C's and here I'm getting A's and B's. That's not to knock UIUC, I'm at a way better place mentally and as a person. I've learned how to work hard in school and I know what I need to do to succeed. I update my schedule on google calendar, I do every single homework assignment, and I study before tests. I'm able to do things early when I know I'm going to have a busy week and don't let big assignments overwhelm me. I am confident that I will get my Associates Degree on time, my main concern is being able to transfer and get my Bachelor's.

My GPA from UIUC was very low and it seems like they will have that in mind when making their decision to let me transfer. That's a problem, but I believe that they will understand because 1. I (my parents) are able to pay for my school comfortably, so there are no issues there and 2. I can make a good case that I am reformed and will perform well at their institution. Also, if I keep up my current grades then I believe that some school somewhere will accept me. And even in the worse possible scenario where no one wants me, I will try and get a job with my Associates degree.

Image from UIUC

My time at UIUC was a little rough to say the least. That's not because the school is bad or anything, I just had a lot of problems back then. I got my first job here and it was a very good experience for me. I started with wiping down tables in the cafeteria and eventually moved on to the fast food place in the convenience store. I met most of my school friends there because we saw each other fairly often and went out together on occasion. Regarding school, the classes I took weren't too bad, but I was in a bad spot mentally and didn't really like business (my major at the time), so I failed some classes and ended up dropping out.

I sincerely thank all of the friends I had at 57' (the convenience store) and my roommate Thomas. I doubt any of you will end up finding out that this site exists, but I really appreciated your friendship. No one knew that I was going through so much because I didn't tell anyone, but you all were pretty much the only good thing I had back then. Especially Thomas, every weekend we went out to a restaurant and it was a great time. Also shout out to Josh and Tommy who sometimes came with.

Image from Schaumburg High School

High school was the time I was the most socially active in my life. Having classes with the same people for four years does that sort of thing. Also, band probably played a big part in it too. I didn't do any extracurricular activities except for band, but I would say band was a super extracurricular activity. Because of band I went to every home football game, many home basketball games, and played in the occasional concert. Also, we spent part of our summer learning the marching band routine, it was called band camp. Other than that, I spent as much as my free time as possible playing video games with my friends.

Overall I would say that High School was a very positive experience for me, but I definitely had a lot of regrets. Around junior or senior year I ended up having trouble in two classes. The problem was that I could do all of my classes easily, putting in minimal effort so I never had to actually do work. I think many people have this problem, but I never got over it. I feel like I'm able to say I've gotten over it if I pass all my classes with a B or higher this semester at Harper. I've gotten to the point where I do all of my assignments on time, but studying outside of assignments is my next problem. I wish I took the time to figure out that stuff during high school instead of now. It would have saved me a lot of pain in the long run.

Image from dailyherald.com

I don't remember much from Jr. High School, it was basically the same as Highschool with different teachers. I think that's what you're going for when you make a Jr. High School, so I would say Jane Addams did a good job. One thing I specifically remember from Jr. High is that I actually used my locker. In High School I didn't use my locker at all. I don't think that lockers are very useful when you have a backpack. I guess there were more physical books in High School than college, so it makes sense that they would give you one.

The only other thing I remember from Jane Addams is that I was in the D54 Jazz Band. That was the most fun I've had doing band stuff by far. I played the trumpet and I was good friends with a lot of people in that group. We were lucky to have a good singer too. She did a good job in particular with "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble. Also I helped out with the elementary school band practice either before or after Jazz Band. That was also very fun. It makes me think that maybe I would make a good teacher. I'd probably become a teacher if I didn't want to do computer science. The problem is that teachers have to get their Master's Degree and I really don't want to do that!

Image from Homes.com

Thankfully I've had only good experiences with school: I've never experienced bullying, I've never felt alone, and all my teachers have been good. I started school at Dooley where I met my first friends: Mason, Ian, Kyle, Will, Frank, Anthony, and Devon come to mind. I don't talk to any of them much anymore, but we had a lot of fun during that time. I specifically remember going to sleepovers at Will's house and not sleeping the entire night drinking soda and playing video games. We also hung out frequently at the Dooley park and the creek behind it. We also played together online with video games. I think we mainly played Minecraft and Team Fortress 2. Those are the main games I remember from that time period.

A few years ago I needed to do some volunteer work for a High School requirement and I decided to go back and help with an afterschool club to fulfill it. I thought it was going to be weird, but it ended up being very fun and fulfilling. Apparently the teachers running the club remembered me and we ended up doing well. It was called the Rube Goldberg club and we made some machine that got a ball to the set endpoint, but it did a bunch of cool stuff on the way there.