The 87 That Woke Me Up

Back in seventh grade, I had this very memorable Honors English class. In my mind so far, I was thinking middle school was a lot easier because of 6th grade and the classes I took beforehand. But little did I know that was about to change. At the start of the class, it was very easy, and I had an A+ in the class. It was starting to feel like a regular English class that I would just be allowed to cruise through and not really think about. This started to change slightly once we went into deeper units about English. After a couple of weeks in the class, my grades were still ok, and it evened out to a normal A. After a little while, the class started to get a little harder.

But one thing I noticed was that my peers weren't struggling as much as I was. I didn't really pay much attention at the time because this can happen to anyone. Then, during one of the tests, I was reading the questions, and I started to realize I didn't really understand them that well, and the questions were confusing. All of my classmates said the same thing, but for some reason they got A's, and I got an 85. I was in middle school, so I wasn't really used to getting a B on anything yet, so I was kind of mad about it. The one thing I didn't do that I wish I did was that I didn't start studying and following the class material sooner. Soon enough, more quizzes and tests came, and I was barely surviving. I was getting 82s and 89s on my tests, and my final grade dropped to an 87. This was what really shook me because I have never had a grade that low in a class before. It was a wake-up call from God because it showed me what school does if you try to lay back or don't take it seriously. I then started to study more, and my grade continued to rise and rise. Then on the last day of the grading period, one of the small assignments I submitted ended up bumping my grade from an 89 to a 90 at the last second.