Making the Team by Tobias Wade

In August 2005, I became a freshman at Cedar Shoals High School. I was a little scared to come because I had never been to high school before, but when the first day came I was over it. When I walked into the building, it was a whole new atmosphere. My friends and I were walking around the school to see people that we knew. The bell rang, and we had to go to class. I was late to my first period, because I got lost but the teacher didn’t mind because it was the first day. A couple of days later, I was talking to a friend about playing basketball, and he told me that tryouts were coming up. Three weeks later tryouts came. I tried out and made the team. I was doing good on the court but not in school. My coach told me that if I did not pass three out of four classes at the end of the semester that I would be kicked off the team. The end of the semester came, and I passed two out of four classes. The coach called my house and told me that I was kicked off the team. I had to tell my mother that I was kicked off the team for not passing my classes. She was not so happy about that, and she did not talk to me for three days. I felt bad that I let her down.

The second semester came around, and I was not doing so good in my classes. I was hanging around the wrong crowd, skipping class, and I didn’t care about school much because I was not playing basketball. Towards the end of the year, I was back to my normal self and passed two out of four classes once again. I went to summer school so that I could get some credits that I did not get from the first semester. I failed the ninth grade and kept getting into trouble with my teachers because I was mad that I didn’t play basketball. The three following years I changed my attitude towards school and got back on track to graduate.

Now that you have read the story about my freshman year in high school, I hope that you understand how important your freshman year is. If you don’t pass your classes, you will spend most of your time trying to catch up with your classmates and like me you won’t be able to play sports until your grades are up to par. When you are acting out in class trying to make your friends laugh, you should remember that your work is more important than your friends. Finish your work, then talk to them but not so much that you will get in trouble and get kicked out of class. What I am trying to say is just do your work and stay out of trouble. If you show respect to your teachers, they will show you respect back and the same goes for your classmates.