High school is hard enough. Everyone is going through puberty, you're playing an unofficial popularity contest, you're pressured to get good grades, join clubs, sports, etc. But when you're struggling with your gender identity and sexual orientation along with bullying and family issues at home, you're lacking major social skills. You can only focus on so much at a time, especially when you're a teenager. It can be extremely overwhelming. With that said, I'm going to write about the difficulties I had in school and what I'm doing now. My goal is to set an example that anyone can do it and that you shouldn't give up because something is difficult.
September 2013 was the first time I stepped into a high school. Freaking out, I wasn't sure what to think of it. It was the only high school in the town I grew up in. If you have issues in that school, you just had to live with it or move. The bullying was ultimately too much, but I stuck it out until the end of the year. That summer I ended up moving to New Hampshire. I tried going to high school again, but the bullying continued. My academic counselor told me that I was never going to graduate at the rate that I was going. It was really discouraging, which was when I dropped out of high school. It just so happened that I also moved to California within the next couple of months. I was in my second year of high school, but still had the credits of a freshman.
When I moved to California, my entire schooling was a mess. I had built-up trauma from the schools on the east coast. It was bad enough to the point where I just flat out refused to go to school for six months. In May 2016, I had a conversation with an education mentor. He really opened my eyes, and my made me realize how important an education is. That's when I made the decision to go Job Corps. Job Corps is a residential education/trade program for folks aged 16-24. At this point, I doubted my worth and believed that I wasn't going to be able to accomplish what I wanted to without my high school diploma and further education.
Now, I managed to go from a freshman (credit-wise) to graduated in about seven months. I wouldn't recommend going that fast, as it will burn you out. I was able to fully focus because this was the first school I had ever attended where I wasn't bullied. My gender identity and sexual orientation were respected. There is a connection between bullying and how successful you are in school. I ended up graduating with a 3.8 GPA, whereas at my previous school I had a 2.0 during my best semester.
Once I graduated, I was able to attend a community college since my school didn't offer SAT testing. My school was also accredited by community colleges, so most of my credits were able to transfer. I basically started my first year of community college as a sophomore. I really only needed a handful classes to have enough credits to transfer to a University.
I submitted applications to almost every University in California that I qualified for. Many rejection letters later, I got an acceptance letter to UC Berkeley. I got accepted to other universities as well, but this was on my top tree list of schools. I accepted it, and now I'm officially starting their Journalism program in the Fall of 2017.
I didn't give up, I didn't listen to the people who told me to give up, and I kept pushing. Now I'm almost 18 years old, a sophomore in college, getting ready to transfer. Three years ago, if you told you me where I'd be today, I would have been extremely confused. My point here is that you can do it. Educational barriers are hard to avoid, but if you can push through, it can be extremely rewarding. I love going to and attending school; it's just so much easier when I'm not having to defend myself all the time.
