FORT PIERCE, Florida, U.S.A. — Some students feel that senior year is stressful and some think it’s a breeze.
My senior year has been really different.
This year started normal: same school, same friends and some of the same teachers I’d known before.
I passed through the year with flying colors and made the honor roll during the first two quarters. I was enjoying school and my friends.
By the time the third quarter came, I began having some family problems.
My parents are split and have been for many years. I have been living with my father and stepmother in Connecticut for 10 years.
The problems deal with my mother in Florida . For many personal reasons, in the second week of March we decided it was better for me to move in with my mother.
Within that week I withdrew from school, left my part-time job of three years at Bristol Ten Pin, and said goodbye all my friends to move in with my family in Florida.
My friends picked me up at my house on the morning of March 14 and brought me to the airport — and I was on my way to begin my new life.
I arrived a little skeptical, but as the days went on I got more and more confident this was going to work.
The public school system down here is horrible, so my mother and I decided we I had to do something else to finish high school.
Indian River Community College in Fort Pierce has an adult high school program for free. Students take the classes they need to finish and the required classes that they need in order to graduate in the state of Florida. When they’re done, they get their high school diplomas.
I thought this was great so I started classes there.
Well, its been almost two months since I moved here and now I am almost done with school. I bought a car and got a part-time job at Best Buy.
I can say that I have had a pretty interesting senior year. It is definitely a new experience that not a lot of people get to enjoy.
Life has been rolling and it only gets better from here.
I can’t wait to begin the next step of my life: college.
Eric Simmons is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.
