High School to College --by Deana Johnson “Relax. Stay positive. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You are living and learning. Forgive yourself and grow from the experience.” 1 Community college attended: Manchester Community College Location: Manchester, Connecticut Date success story was submitted: Dec. 15, 2020 Community college sponsor/mentor and college affiliation: Patrick Sullivan, English Department, Manchester Community College Key search terms: Recent high school graduate Academic major: Early Childhood Education Here’s a little bit about me. Both of my parents are from Jamaica. My whole family is. My dad is from Kingston, and my mom is from Spanish Town. My mom and dad speak Jamaican. I can sometimes understand it just a little bit. For example, when she says “Mi hav fi go to de shop” or “Tun on de ion” she means that she has to go to the store or to turn on the iron and when my dad says “Wah Gwaan” or “Lickkle more” he means what’s up or see you later or goodbye. Not only can I understand it a little bit, I can also speak it a little bit but it’s not that good. My love for the language also extends to the cuisine. The food is so good, and I love eating it. If I had to choose which type of food to eat for the rest of my life, I would choose Jamaican. I love the food but there are some dishes that I don’t like which are curry goat, and porridge. And then are foods that I enjoy like ackee and saltfish, which is a breakfast dish, bammy (fried bread made from cassava flour and is served with fried fish and is a breakfast food), coco bread (lunch), rice and peas (dinner), curry chicken (dinner), beef/ackee and saltfish patty, fried fish, and fried dumpling which is also a breakfast food. Overall, Jamaican food is delicious and amazing. I also love the music. It is one of the things that will get me dancing and singing. It makes me feel like I’m at home since my whole family is from Jamaica. The songs I listen to, sometimes, are “Murder She wrote” by Pilers, “Toast” by Koffee, “Hold Yuh”/“Wine Slow”/“African Queen” by Gyptian, “Temperature”/“Get Busy”/“We be burning”/“Gimme the light”/“Like Glue” by Sean Paul. What makes Jamaica beautiful is the miles of beaches. It has some beaches in the Caribbean with crystal blue waters and breathtaking scenery and sunsets. What I love about Jamaica is that it’s very sunny, the beach is very beautiful, the houses are nice, and I know my family is there wishing to see me. One of the main reasons I have been successful in life is my mom. She has always been there for me no matter what. We had many conversations about what I want to do later in life and conservations about what she dreamed of doing, how it started and how she’s doing now. I’ve always dreamed of becoming a teacher since I was little. She told that I would put my stuffed animals in a circle and pretend I was reading them. Right then, she knew I was going to be a teacher. When she was 16, she dreamed of becoming a Benefits Administrator. So she did, she started out at Bloomfield Health Care Center, worked there for a few years, then moved up to National, worked there for another couple of years, and then when all her hard work paid off she moved up to working from home at Next Step Healthcare, where she currently works. We did have some bad times, though, but we always fixed it like in high school. I started high school as a shy and quiet student who worked hard. I was on the honor roll a couple times and 2 was student of the month like twice but then when sophomore, junior and senior year came, everything started to go downhill. In my second year of high school, sophomore, I had a bad mindset. I would put myself down constantly telling myself that I'm ugly, stupid (I still do sometimes), fat and I even had thoughts of committing you know what (I don't want to say it). But, as life went on with the love and support from my family and friends, I managed to start liking myself and then loving myself. I still have a bad mindset a little bit but not as bad like I don’t have those thoughts anymore. I was also heartbroken because I had lost my grandma. I was very close to her, and me and my dad weren’t talking but everything is good now. As for junior and senior year, my grades started to get bad and they weren’t where I wanted them to be and where they used to be. Everyone knows that when you get close to senior year, you think to start think “Do I really still need to do this? I’m about to leave.” Well from my experience I can tell you don’t do that. I did it and because of it I got F’s in the last quarter of my senior year. If it had stayed that way, I wouldn’t have graduated high school. So, to avoid that, I ended up having to stay after with multiple teachers to make-up all the work I was missing or didn’t finished. I also ended disappointing people because of it like one of my teachers, my mom and myself. I hated myself even more because I let it get to that point by not turning in work on time. But, with the help and support from my mom and the teachers I stayed after with I passed all my classes and my finals, and I graduated on time, with the rest of my class and my friends. When I walked the stage, I made my mom, dad, brothers, uncle, grandma and myself proud. I’ll admit after high school, I didn’t want to go to college. To me, I had my life planned out already. I would get a job and go to college when I was ready. But I am glad that I did because I am the first person in my family to go to college. When I started in Fall 2019, the nerves started coming. I wasn’t sure what it had in store for me. The first day I walked into the building, the nerves started coming at full speed and when my first class started my heart was racing. I barely talked, and I was so shy. I was quiet as mouse. There were times where I had to talk, and I did. Then, I went right back to being quiet. In the beginning, everything was going okay but later everything started going down. I started not to take it seriously. I started to skip class and wasn’t doing the work. So, I ended up failing all my classes and exams. I waited months after the first semester ended to tell my mom and I regret that so much. I still regret it to this day because I should’ve told her the second I knew I was failing, but I didn’t. Then, after many long talks, I came to an awakening. I wasn't going to put myself in the same exact cycle again for second semester. I wasn’t going to. But, in the middle of the second semester, after I finished a math assignment, I got an F and that day I put myself in the same situation as the first semester. So, I tried my hardest and I passed the second semester. Then came third semester, right now. I am proud of where I am today. Even though I had to be reminded about some things along the way, I was able to figure it all out and get back on track. This semester I know I passed because I pretty much have straight As, I have some Bs too but at least it’s not Cs. I feel like I have grown and gotten better as a writer. In the beginning of third semester, when I would do a discussion post or essay and I had to explain a quote in my own words I would only write one sentence. I put an example of my first discussion post down below: 3 My Reading Response! What I found interesting in this handout is how reading can help you with math. I never knew in my life that reading books can help you math problems but after reading this now I know. According to the handout it stated "Their research showed that reading for pleasure produces important benefits across a variety of academic disciplines (including math) and that 'reading is actually linked to increased cognitive progress over time.' Obviously, these cognitive gains will help you regardless of your major or career aspirations...but if we think of reading as an activity that by its very nature...helps us develop more sophisticated ways of understanding the world, then it makes good sense." This means that although reading can expand your vocabulary and give us new understandings, it can also benefit you when doing math. What I also found interesting is how our brain changes because of learning and how it creates new pathways. The handout stated "Science has begun to play an important role in our understanding of learning and some fascinating discoveries have been made in this regard related to reading.