Top Ten

"Top Ten Most Thrilling Academic Moments of My High School Career."

Some of these are serious moments/achievements that affected me greatly, while others are more moments of extreme relief. "Thrilling" is an adjective, defined as producing strong and deep emotion, so all of these could fall under that category nonetheless.

1. Becoming Editor-in-Chief of the school's newspaper. I like to think that I helped improve the newspaper, but that's not for me to decide to be honest. "I saw an opportunity to take the [newspaper] I'd always known, and change it into the [newspaper] that you, and everybody else, has always enjoyed" (Currie 163).
2. Writing thirty pages of my original story, the majority of which was written in a single night. "Come, stand not amazed at it, but go along with me" (Shakespeare 4.3.103).
3. Joining Choir class. I was pretty good, but my voice was abnormally low at first. I had an inability to hit any kind of high notes before practicing more and more. "I don't play accurately...but I play with wonderful expression" (Wilde 1).
4. Knowing that I will graduate with Honors, although it seems less "thrilling" when you realize that "the whole theory of modern education is radically unsound" (Wilde 13).
5. Creating a blog for AP English 12. This seemed like something that was extremely out of the ordinary, and could be fun. "Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?" (Wilde 2).
6. Doing well on both my AP English and U.S. History tests. It was my first time taking AP tests, so I was a bit nervous, to say the least. "But what does being an adult teach you, if not how to function in the face of fear?" (Currie 256).
7. Passing my AP Spanish class. It's a struggle. "Lord have mercy on me" (Shakespeare 5.2.57).
8. Passing my AP Physics class, which didn't seem possible for me. "Dost thou mock me?" (Shakespeare 4.1.62).
9. Scoring a 27 on the ACT, but doesn't seem as impressive when compared to many other people at Chagrin. "I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance" (Wilde 13).
10. Receiving an A in AP English for the first time. "And so anything, anything, anything is possible" (Currie 302).

I feel as though the last half of this list makes me seem like a less confident person/student than I really am, and that's not what I meant to do. It's just that I tend to stress over school a lot, a lot more than I probably should. I've had countless "thrilling" moments throughout my high school career, but the majority of them aren't specifically academic.