Overcoming Adversity on the Path to Graduation
Each year, an average of about 1.3 million students drop out of high school in the United States. That’s nearly 2 out of every 4 high school students in America that abandons their seat at graduation. For many high school students, what takes place inside of a classroom is the least of their issues. Whether its academic troubles, financial complications, family issues, or self-doubt, there are many obstacles that could be placed on a student’s path to graduation.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Trials and tribulations tend to squeeze the artificiality out of us, leaving the essence of what we really are and clarifying what we really yearn for.” Phases of adversity will be faced throughout our lives, but how we overcome and what we take from those challenges is what truly defines us. For some, adversities will result in positivity that influence the path of ones life. Confronting adversities of my own wasn’t the easiest task for me, but what is easy isn’t always worth it, and the amount of adversity I faced throughout my senior year does not compare to the amount of joy I received at the end of my senior year. Senior year, for me, was the most challenging year that I faced while in high school… or school. Period. From working full-time hours just to pay for what I needed to starting college in the summer just to get away from home sooner, I faced fewer challenges in the halls of Stephenson than I did in my own home.
When I got my first job, I thought it’d just be extra money I’d have in my pockets. You know? Pay for a senior fee here or there, but not here AND there. Every time I asked my mother for help, it was always “Figure it out.” Now I’m not saying that she owes me anything. That’s my mother. She gave me life, and that was more than enough, but senior year is the most financially stressful year you will ever deal with in high school. Senior dues, cap and gown, lost textbooks, lost library books, activities, and not to mention the dues if you were a member of a club. My personal list went on for days. I went from working twenty-four hours a week with four days off to working forty-five hours a week with no days off. I was being released from school early under the work study program, pulling off ten-hour shifts. I got so caught up in overworking myself that I neglected my classes, but how else was I going to pay for everything?
The day before graduation, I was still failing my British Literature class with a 66.42. No extra credit, no remaining assignments, and a “no handouts” teacher. I didn’t know how to feel. I didn’t know what I was suppose to feel. All I could, at the moment, was wonder if I had really dedicated twelve years (thirteen, if you include pre-k) of my life just to fail myself at the end of it all. And although my relationship with my mother isn’t at its best standing, taking away her chance of seeing her child walk across the stage just wouldn’t be fair, especially considering the fact that she discovered she was pregnant with me on the day of her own graduation. Usually, I pull through, but what if I don’t this time? How do I explain that to her if I don’t?
Because of my failing relationship with my parents, my connection with my friends and classmates were stronger than anything. From being the co-captain of my dance team, putting eleven girls under my wings and befriending over two hundred bandmates to representing my class as class president, I was always at school. From 8a to 10p, you would’ve thought I slept there at night. But the connection to some of my peers was lost on the day of graduation when I realized that some of them didn’t pull through and make it like I did. Am I suppose to feel sad for them? Are they happy for me?
A lot of whats and hows were unanswered for me, but on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, those answers didn’t matter anymore. I did. I walked across the stage with a diploma in my hand, I put a smile on my mother’s face, and I still got the support from my friends, rather it was in the audience or sitting next to me in our royal blue. As I write the last words to this post, I sit where I once thought I wouldn’t make it, on a college campus, Kennesaw State University’s campus.
