Choice and Engagement: The Path to Success
By: Lochlan Boling
I have never been a straight-A student, it was not that I didn’t like school but I have struggled with assignments. However, class labs, discussions, and explorations are my jam. I would say that I am always very engaged in what I am doing. When I am at school I am 100% there but as soon as I start my after school activities like climbing I become fully engaged in those. My high school career has consisted of me giving it my all in class and then trying to scrape by and manage my homework. I tried the public school, which was even worse, then I tried homeschool. Neither worked so for my senior year I decided to come back to the mountain school which is the best decision I have ever made. Sure I was still not a straight-A student but I came to class every day ready to be present.
My next example of when I was truly engaged in school was an in-class essay for history. We did a unit on Japan and how they rose to become a world power which I found very interesting. Jesse stated that we had a test with an in-class essay and at first I was dreading it because I thought I would do poorly but then I changed my attitude. I studied and really got into the content and enjoyed the process. I watched historical movies and became fully engaged in the history of Japan. Then, I went into Jesse’s class and nailed it. Getting an A on one of Jesse’s essays feels really good because it is not a common occurrence for me. This gave me confidence because I knew that if I really liked a subject and fully engaged myself in school but also a little outside of school I could do really well on something.
Two particular in-class activities that went very well during my senior year were, dissecting a pig heart in biology and an in-class essay for history. Some people would avoid picking up a formaldehyde smelling pig’s heart and start examining it but this was my favorite class of the year. The pig heart dissection was my favorite part of biology class because we got to apply what we were learning about the heart. We had been reading and learning everything about the heart but I never fully understood it until we got to cut one open and look inside. I was shocked when Kyle and I could find every little piece and name it.
Knowing my successes and my strengths and weaknesses I was worried when I knew we were moving to online classes. I found it very challenging to get that same level of stoke on a subject through a computer screen. These past weeks I have been really trying though, trying to get that same in class feeling from my house so I could finish high school on a strong note. An assignment that I did during online school that I excelled in was a short story I wrote for English. It was a creative writing piece that I spent a lot of time on and am very proud of. Online school, although I did not enjoy it and I would rather be in class, it taught me that I can buckle down and complete hard work when I am not in class.
