Commentary: End of year wrap-up

I arrived at Fresno Christian during third grade, from my previous school Pinedale Elementary. As soon as I came to FC the environment was completely different, in a good way. I made more friends during my first couple of weeks than I did during my whole year at Pinedale.

The teachers at FC were very interested in my personal life and also set on helping me excel in all aspects of my education unlike my other school.

When I was a child all the way through my early teens I was very shy in front of people and lacked self confidence. Whenever I would have to talk to someone new I would just try to end the conversation as quick as possible and that usually would come off as rude. Friends that surrounded me could see my progress during my years of schooling. My overcoming of this lack of self confidence was due to the level of leadership and opportunity the small school presented to every student that attended.

By the time high school came to be a thought I was very well prepared for what was to come, except for Greg Stobbe. During the summer between my eighth grade and freshman year, I had slight butterflies in my stomach because I had heard so many scary stories about the high school English and journalism teacher. Then after all this worrying the day had finally come and Stobbe familiarized himself with his new freshman class.

As time went on I got yelled at by Stobbe more and more but this didn’t discourage me because I was actually seeing results in my writing and in my confidence to carry on a conversation with new people. After moving on from freshman year and going on to sophomore year, my self confidence level difference was day and night.

Sophomore year for me was a breeze, both academically and socially. I was doing well in basic classes and also took up AP courses as well. Now in terms of the social aspect I was way better but I was over confident and needed to find that happy medium. I would go up to people and kind of yell in their face while introducing myself, I didn’t want to be the awkward part of the conversation so I would establish my dominance. This didn’t help at all and also reassured me that the National Geographic show was not helping me in my social meetings.

Junior year on the other hand was easy and fun socially, I found my happy medium socially and was making acquaintances left and right. In an academic point of view it was challenging but I got through it with some tutoring. Also during 11th grade I joined Mr. Stobbe’s journalism class to further my writing skills. The previous two years I didn’t join because I wasn’t ready for the big responsibility of joining The Feather, but after I joined it was the best choice I had made academically during high school.

Most of my high school was way better than I had pictured it being. I think most of the credit would have to go towards Greg Stobbe’s English and journalism classes. When senior year rolled around, I was on top of my social game and when homecoming came around I became Homecoming King, mostly because of my dance performance, I think, but that also took some social maturity.

Some people, including my best friend, Rees Roggenstein, can attest to the social changes I went through during my years here at Fresno Christian. From winning multiple awards and traveling across the country with The Feather Online team to hanging out with my good friends, one thing I can say for sure is that my self confidence and social skills have been made strong due to the opportunities that were given to me here at Fresno Christian and The Feather Online.

The next chapter of my life will be spent at the University of Nevada, Reno in the Pre-Medical program. I will be majoring in English during my time there.

For another senior reflection read, Senior Reflection: Andrew Moore.