Emily+S's+Goals+for+Freshman+Year+and+Beyond

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=Text of My Speech=

A couple 8-minute miles. Three years with the silliest Weiner-dog on Earth. Countless trips across America. Nine sick Christmases. One Wonk Night. 4 kidney stones – one passed, three more to go. While there may only be a few notable feats in my young life, I assure you, there are many more to come.

Hi, my name is Emily S, and I'm a freshman in high school. Freshmen year is the beginning of my high school life. Though it has already proven to be to be no easy task, I refuse to back down and simply float through my first year. Throughout my academic life, I have never had a 4.0 GPA. Usually, a single B in my worst subject – more often than not, a math class – would always find a way onto my report card. A 3.8 – my average GPA – isn’t bad at all, but now, I refuse to let it be enough. My main goal for my freshmen year is to receive a 4.0 each semester.

In addition to good grades over all, I want to excel 2 particular classes – Spanish and geometry. I think learning and speaking Spanish is a valuable skill to posses where we live, and I have noticed that “Spanish-speaker” is something very impressive on résumé or a job application. I would like to excel geometry, however, not just to look good, but also for more of a personal reason. For as long as I can remember, I have hated any, and every, sort of math – I’ve never been good at it, and it has always been my weakest subject. This year, however, I want to make it become my strength, so I can move on to Algebra 2 and Trigonometry later on in my high school years.

Doing great in school is one thing, but I’d like to focus on life outside of school also. I want to be able to look back in 10 years and remember how good my first year of high school was – not for being valedictorian or never leaving the library, but defiantly not for partying every weekend either. I want to go to Friday night football games with my friends, go see movies on the weekend, and spend afternoons at the mall. I’d like to get a job, also; I love the feeling of working hard and earning money on my own.

Friends play an important part in my high school life, too. Although I’ve already made many new friends this year, I want to keep my old friends close as well, regardless of where they go to school. As for my friends that don’t attend this school, I definitely want to keep in touch with them too, no matter what.

While starting high school hasn’t been a totally smooth ride, it’s not a roller coaster either. And just surviving my first month here has given me enough encouragement to finish my year strong.