While others refer to high school as "the best time of their lives," my experience just came up flat. My home life, internal struggles, and battles with myself took center stage, meaning that school was most definitely not my top priority. I wish things could have been different, but they weren't. Because of everything going on, I ended up missing a lot of school. I even got suspended because of how many days I had missed.

At the end of my first semester of sophomore year, I was pulled out of school and begin looking into a private Christian academy. Yes, this included school uniforms and crazy rules, like no colored hair (I already had colored hair) and no pants for girls (skirts, ew!). Although the programs (sports, music, etc.) were amazing, I am glad I ended up not choosing to attend a private Christian school, instead, I chose to finish online!

Fast forward online schooling- it was not going very well. My teachers were never present on any forum, so I ended up having to teach myself which was difficult for me. A month or two after my mom got a call for our local family courts saying I was a truant student. Although we had filed all the appropriate paper for me to transition into online school, my prior school had seemingly lost the paperwork, which in turn made me look truant (you can imagine how nervous this made me!)

My Deputy Juvenile Officer (DJO) took into consideration that I was struggling due to the lack of not having proper guidance. She recommended (to start me off) a program called Project Learn, I was 15 years old at the time, and she said I would be in this class preparing for my G.E.D once I had turned 16.

When I started project learn I did not expect to be the only girl in my class. Project Learn was a program to help “troubled” kids get back into the school system to get a diploma or to move over into the G.E.D class. We were all there for different reasons (some a lot more serious than others), but nonetheless, we were all good kids underneath all of the crap we had going on.

I quickly fell in love with Project Learn because I could be myself without any humiliation in the matter. Fast forward to my time with Project Learn, I was voted “most likely to succeed in life” by my classmates, among other things they felt I was. For the first time, in a long time, I was proud of myself- and that was a big step that lead me to my G.E.D.

I finally turned 16 and moved over to the G.E.D class (it was right next door). It was a much different environment, and only confined in a volunteer tutor, I was not too fond of the other two teachers. My test was set for some time in October, then I was out for nearly three weeks due to mono (and no it was not from kissing!), when I returned my teacher doubted me. She told me I would not be able to pass- but boy did I prove her wrong, because I passed with flying colors.

Now for those kids entering or deciding on getting their G.E.D, it does NOT make you any less of a person who has a diploma! Those voices of negativity are just that, negative thoughts to bring you down! People choose to get their G.E.D for so many different reasons, and believe it or not (at least in my experience) more middle-aged people get their G.E.D. At my graduation there was only a handful of teens, the rest were adults, and they shared there beautifully amazing stories of their life and how they found the way to get their G.E.D.

I am not ashamed to have my G.E.D, you should not be either.