<p>My mom is the only one in my entire family (grandparents, cousins, uncles, brothers) with a college degree. My eldest brother dropped out of high school. My other older brother graduated like top 95% or something equally ridiculous. He barely graduated and has gotten caught with marijuana and what-not. My little brother has some learning disabilities.</p>
<p>As for my personal story- I went into elementary school loving school. I was in the gifted program and overall very interested in learning and my teachers always praised my writing abilities. In sixth grade if we wanted to be in the 'advanced' junior high program we had to compile a bunch of writing samples and take some tests and what-not. I could have, but I chose not to. I thought it was a "waste of time." Worst mistake of my life, because the 'advanced' junior high program fed into all the honors high school classes. So when I entered high school I couldn't take honors courses. And in regular classes? There is everyone- those people who don't understand the material for the life of them, the people who sleep in class and pull off decent grades, the people who flunk because they don't want to try, and then my type- the smart kids who just aren't in honors for some reason. The group of friends I made weren't the high scoring kids, and I just wanted to fit in, so I rarely did homework and pulled off a B average as an underclassman. It was near the end of sophomore year when the boredom was closing in on me and I couldn't take it. I enrolled in one AP course- AP human geography, of all subjects- and my high school experience did a 180. I got a 4.0 junior year, and was able to finally move up in some subject areas... now I'm in ap economics, ap euro, and ap english, and getting As in all of them. My other courses are precalc (A+ ... math department wouldn't let me move up to honors even though I offered a number of different ways including a tutor and summer school), spanish IV (A ... couldn't move up in because I wouldn't feel comfortable going spanish III to spanish V), and physics (B+ ... and I wasn't interested in AP physics)</p>
<p>So. I'd call myself a self-made student. After being in this lock-down position I was able to break free- not completley, but I did what I could. Oh, and I am very very proud to note that I am one of the top-scoring students in my ap classes. I was in regular english 3 yrs and I'm one of the three or four students in my class of 30 getting an A in ap english. And I don't do much besides read the assigned books? Sorry if that's egotistical, but they weren't even going to let me take the class (I had to get about 3 recommendations and talk to a bunch of people). My current teacher has talked to my previous english teacher and said that I'm "where I belong." :D</p>
<p>In addition - after being the unknown, mediocre underclassman, I'm now the leader of many clubs and I've had two advisers seek me out and ask if I'm willing to help with their club. Kind of weird, but flattering, I guess. I've also been in the awkward position of a teacher calling my mother and telling her how good of a student I am. It was REALLY weird, but perhaps flattering. My counselor keeps telling me that I'll get this score my ACT or SAT or that I probably won't do well in a certain class, and I just keep proving him wrong to spite him. He's stopped predicting my grades and such because he realizes that him trying to drag me down is annoying me. </p>
<p>Okay, I'm done now. This was fun, thanks for the opportunity.</p>