My Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Regents Day

As I stood outside of  Millennium High School, after being rejected from yet another school because of my lack of documentation, I was truly ready to give up. School had already started a week previously but I had not yet been accepted into any high school. No school wanted to admit a potential student without her past school records, which was perfectly understandable but equally frustrating because there was no way I could get any documentation from my past high school. When I came to New York from Florida it was during the time in which Hurricane Irma was wreaking havoc on southern the United States. As a result of this natural disaster, schools in Florida, specifically my previous high school was closed and because of this I wasn’t able to call and get a copy of my official transfer papers or my official school transcript. And was it was because of this why I wasn’t admitted to a school as soon as I possibly could. 

After being rejected from Millennium, I yet again grabbed the New York School Directory and tried to find a new school that I hoped would accept me. After searching for multiple days on end, I finally John Dewey High School. After talking to my mom about it, who then told me my aunt once went there, we decided that we’d try and see if I could be admitted. After going to John Dewey to register and praying that my report cards would be enough, I was accepted and told to return on Monday for my first day of school.

On my first day I didn’t exactly have a schedule yet because the administration didn’t know where to place me, so school didn’t exactly begin for me until the second day. On the second day of school I met my English teacher for Junior Year, Ms. Clark. To this day she is still one of the best teachers that I have ever had. Ms. Clark, who is White and Korean, was a rather young teacher, small in frame but had the energy of a power house. She could be best described as a compact burst of energy. She was very passionate about English and loved what she did and it really showed. I’ve never met someone who could be so energetic at 8:00 in the morning, bouncing around, yelling about Freudian Theory in the midst of our lesson on Romeo and Juliet. Ms. Clark, who would later become by Mock Trial coach, made learning in her class something to look forward to. She made it very easy to understand and made sure everyone was always engaged and attentive when she was teaching. She made sure every student understood what she was teaching and even stayed back on Wednesdays to make sure students individually got the material by working working one on one. Ms. Clark frequently gave tips and tricks on how to remember things and formats that were important and words we could use to “spice up our vocabulary”. She was such a big help during my English Regents, one of the five tests that I realized were needed in order to graduate from high school. My English Regent, along with other core subject Regents were exams, used to test students understand a specific subject in which they are being tested on. Ms Clarks help on my English Regent, both inside and outside of the classroom, has made me forever grateful for having been in her class.  

It was the morning of the English Regents and I was what you could call terrified. I had prepared and studied the formats but that wasn’t gonna help if I couldn’t even remember what my name was. I read and reread over the material that I was given to prepare, rewrote all my notes, and basically memorized every tip and trick that would help me pass this exam. 

I truthfully don’t remember much about what happened during the test. I remember sitting down and trying really hard not to panic. Then the  next thing I knew the examiner was asking if I had finished with my exam. After handing in my test I noticed that I was the only one left in the room. It made me feel as though I was the only one that found that exam to be as difficult as it was. I ended up leaving the exam room in tears. At that point I knew that I had definitely failed the exam . Everything was a blur, I felt dejected and just wanted to go home. As I was leaving the building, I passed Ms. Clark’s room. I went inside with the intention of apologizing for failing and to tell her I was probably going to be transferred out of her class because of it. She saw me appear and stopped eating her lunch. She then asked me what was wrong and gave me a hug. I explained, through tears, that I was sure I had failed and I’m truly sorry to have disappointed her. She then sat me down, asked me every possible question about the test, what I did and the formats that I used, and how I had answered the presented questions. Her asking all these questions calmed me down enough to focus on what she was telling me. She told me that from everything I had told her I should have passed with at least a 65. And it was in the midst of her telling me this I realized just how grateful I was to have Ms. Clark as a teacher. She was someone that I could talk to about something that I was genuinely worried about and she’d sit down and listen to me even though she didn’t have to. I left reassured and grateful for pep talk and reassurance.

After leaving the school and waiting two antagonizing weeks, the results of the English Regents came out. During my first period, when I had Clark, I noticed that other students had to change the class because they didn’t do so well on the exam and I felt a slight reassurance because I was still in her class. After one of our English classes Ms. Clark announced the exams results and informed me that I had passed with a 90, the highest in the class. After class, shenu told me she was very proud of me and that she knew there was truly nothing to worry about. 

Ms. Clark made me realize that there are teachers that actually care about their students. Teachers that would take the time out of their day to help a student who was feeling dejected and worried  about her score on an exam. A teacher that would do whatever it takes to actually counsel her students and make them feel better about whatever they are going through, it has made me grateful that I had one of these teachers in my life and not someone who was there only for their paychecks alone.