My freshman year was not at all how I expected it to be. I have always loved school. I always had all A’s and B’s in middle school so I expected the same outcome when I walked into Centennial High School for the first time. 

I started my freshman year with high hopes and many goals set. I knew what I wanted to do after high school and I was getting the same good grades that I’d always earned.

But that didn’t last very long; I ended up getting involved with the wrong people and that put me in a very difficult situation.

I started dating a boy who wasn’t any good for me and spent most of my time with him and I started skipping classes to see him. I also became best friends with a girl who didn’t care very much about class or grades. Eventually, I started drinking alcohol and smoking weed. 

My dad didn’t like the fact that I was falling behind in school because of my new friends and boyfriend and we were constantly arguing.  Eventually I moved in with my mom who was living at a friend in Clackamas at the time. In order for me to get to school my mom let me take her car. She soon traded that car in and bought me a baby blue Kia Rio. I was a freshman so I didn’t have my license but that didn’t stop me from driving.

Living at my moms I had a lot more freedom. I continued to drink and smoke, my mom asked me to stop but soon gave up after seeing that I wasn’t going to. My boyfriend lived down the street from me when I lived with my mom so I continued to skip school to see him and I’d pick him up and go to Gresham and hangout with my ex-best friend.

Soon after the living conditions at my mom’s friend’s house got too much to handle and I moved in with my then best friend who ironically lived four houses down from my dad’s. 

I continued to drink and smoke without her guardians knowing. I told the school that I was moving to Arizona so that I could withdraw myself from Centennial. I also told them that I was going to finish my freshman year online. I never did, so I technically dropped out of high school my freshman year.

By then it was almost the end of the school year so I figured I wouldn’t be missing much. What I didn’t take into consideration was that I had already missed too much class and my grades were terrible. All those grades ended up on my transcript and took my GPA from a 3.5 to a 1.8. 

After a failed attempt at online school,  I became very depressed and slept my days away. I broke up with my boyfriend hoping that would help, but it didn’t.

Eventually I got kicked out of that house and had to move back in with my dad near the end of summer. He told me that when I moved back in I had certain rules that I had to follow; I wouldn’t be allowed to drink, or smoke anymore and that I had to enroll back into school. 

Enrolling back into Centennial High School was easy. I thought that when I came back I would be on track and it wouldn’t be hard to make up what I missed. I spent the first half of first semester thinking that I was good. I tried to play basketball and that’s when I found out that because I dropped out the year before I was a whole semester behind and didn’t qualify to play.

I couldn’t care less about playing basketball; I was worried that I wouldn’t graduate. I ran to my counselor’s office crying. I wouldn’t stop crying. I was ready to give up again. Deena Currie then told me that she could help. She took my grades from the year before and quarter credit. She fixed my schedule to where I was in the classes I needed to get my missing credits. 

I finished sophomore year strong and was ready to take on my junior year. I was told I was on track and that I wasn’t behind by anymore. Until I went and tried to see if I could play basketball once again. I was then informed that I was 1.250 credits away from being on track. The credits I were behind in were my elective credits. I was mad and I was upset. I was still behind and I was tired of constantly struggling with school.

I was over it. I was sad. My depression grew worse and worse. I wasn’t the same Chelsea as I was the day before. It was like I was empty. I didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t much I could do considering my schedule was already filled with classes I missed my freshmen year. I couldn’t fit anymore classes into my schedule. There was no way I was going to be able to get those 1.25 credits before my senior year. I was sure I wasn’t going to graduate with my class. 

I turned to a teacher and asked him what I could do. He went with me to my counselor and we got it figured out. Now, I’m on track for sure this time.

I just want to get my story out there because its hard getting back on track when you fall too far behind. I struggled for years and it was tough on me. I learned that I need to stay true to myself and focus on school. Yes, school can get hard and yes you may fall into the wrong crowd but, never give up. When you give up you’re not using the lemons life gave you. I don’t want to tell you not to give up because everyone says that but I will say when you feel like giving up, talk to someone about the reasons why. 

There will always be someone there to help you the best they can. There’s never anything that you can’t achieve. You can literally do anything you put your mind to. 

Giving up should never be an option. In the end you all got this and you will achieve your biggest dreams. Put your mind to it and stay focused on your goal.  

It worked for me.