Cristian Maldonado

The beginning of the year as a 9^th grader was pretty slow. It felt weird, because I did not know many people here, and I was at a new school with a new principal and people. But it didn’t really bother me since I was able to get used to the feeling. When I got my schedule, I was surprised at the classes I got. I had no clue what a few classes were about, like MUN and AP human geography.

I found out that those classes were in fact very interesting. MUN was the most interesting, people talked about world issues and ways to solve them. It was a class based on a real organization, the United Nations. I liked this class because they talked about issues in the world. AP human geography was also my favorite, even though it was an advanced class. I had good grades in that class, and I felt that if I passed a college level class I could pass any other class. Hopefully with all the hard work I put in that class I did pass my AP exam. I liked my other classes too, for example I got guitar and it was one of the best classes this year. I learned to play and I still want to become an amazing guitarist. When I went to my Chinese class I found out it was hard to learn a new language again, but I didn’t want to fail at something I haven’t done, in a while though.

The teachers were pretty friendly and did help a lot. They taught very well and explained everything clearly. If we didn’t understand a certain topic they would go over it individually with us, which made things simple. I did expect to get strict teachers, since of what I have heard about this school. But things turned out okay, and I was glad. If I had a strict teacher it would have been harder for me to concentrate since I cannot work well under pressure. I hope that my teachers next year are the same as this year, a bit laidback and calm. It would certainly help me a lot.

During this year I have changed quite a bit, physically and mentally. I went from being a dark minded and lone person, to a nice different guy. Although a bit of my dark mind exists in me. I don’t really feel like changing completely. I never really liked change much so I try and keep on being the same type of guy for most of my life, even if there are things that could make me change. I want to stay with the same personality I have, it’s for the best since it helps me be nice.

My expectations for next year are to work harder, get good grades for all my classes and keep most of them as A’s. I want to graduate from high school to set out an example to my siblings. I want to be the first one in my family to go and graduate from college. It will make me feel that I’ve accomplished what my parents couldn’t back then. This is how my 9^th grade went, with many random moments and others that went the way I wanted it to go.