Virtual Vacation (September 19th, 2012)
At the end of seventh grade, I didn’t have very many friends at my quaint Christian school. It didn’t exactly help that I wasn’t the best at treating my peers respectfully and was the worst at holding my tongue, but still… I was pretty accustomed to being alone. Both of my parents noticed this as well, and they didn’t exactly appreciate my new direct, controlling attitude. As responsible, loving parents, they decided that it was time to make a change.
“You are absolutely kidding me,” I sat before them, appalled by their conclusion, which at the time I thought was completely irrational. “Virtual school?!” I was practically shouting at them. “This is ridiculous. There’s no way I’m doing this.” Despite my defiance, they were certain of their choice, and by late August I was enrolled in the online database of Western Christian Academy.
Weeks went by of cool autumn weather and I began wearing waaaaay too much brown. Really, I can’t stand brown to this day. It was a sad time in my timeline of sensible style. However, since I was doing virtual, I had plenty of time on my hands since I could choose my schedule. My guitar skills started to advance (relatively quickly I’d say… relatively), and I was in heaven. I read so many books during that time it was crazy! The progress bar on my courses was barley inching forward even after the whole month of September, but at the time I could honestly have cared less. I was finally getting to do things that I never had time to do before.
Towards the end of November, my mom was making dinner and she was being unusually quiet. I could tell something was up, and I knew that it wasn’t going to be good for me. “Toni, why have you only made 20% progress and it’s almost the end of your first semester?” My mother began. Uh-oh, I thought to myself. In my failure to come up with a reasonable response, I figured that I was busted. When the truth of my extreme procrastination and poor time management came to light, to say that my parents were disappointed would be a drastic understatement.
To this day, I’m still enduring the consequences of my poor decisions at the beginning of eighth grade. After I got caught up in my schoolwork and graduated on time, we all thought it was over, but freshman year started up and I got sucked into extracurricular activities and friends and I was once again behind. Both my mom and dad lost a lot of respect for me and they sometimes still have a hard time trusting me. Doing stupid things is part of being a teenager, but often times decisions we make can limit our opportunities to have fun and succeed in the future. Every time I’m faced with a chance to improve my character, I embrace it with all of my might. I need to make things right, and this year I’m determined to make my parents proud with my ability to responsibly make my own choices.