During quarantine, learning began to become hard for me and I would easily get distracted. Virtually learning was not something I was used to and being home was distracting for me. Sitting there in front of a computer whiles on class had me thinking. I thought to myself “What’s the point of sitting here and I’m barely learning, I can’t even full understand the material, and why am I just wasting my time?”. Being hands on and being able to interact with others was my kind of learning. Overtime, I started leaving the house to go hang out with my friends, stopped joining class, doing the work, and woke up late. As my junior year started to roll in, I found myself unmotivated to even do work or show up to class on time or even at all. As parent teacher conferences started to approach, I began to become scared that my parents would find out about my bad grades and my attendance. The day then came, and after my parents found out, they had threatened to sign me up for the army if I didn’t pull myself together.
A couple days after, me and my friend Lucas was having a conversation and he had mentioned that he had joined this organization called SkillsUSA in school. I asked him what it was like and he responded to me saying, ” I can’t really explain it, but I can just show you.”. Who knew that this would be the one thing that turned my life around? As I got more involved, I learned that SkillsUSA focused on making high school students skilled in the trade they wanted to follow and help build leadership. It ranged from electrical to technology to cooking and etc. I ended up choosing Networking which fell in the technology category. Our advisor, Mr.Kalloo, who was also the tech teacher in our school, gave kids who wanted to learn more about Networking the chance to compete in a competition he did every year. The name of the competition was called CyberPatriot which was a program founded by the Air and Space forces Association to inspire students to end up taking a job in the technology field. What I really enjoyed the most out of this was the fact that I was able to find something I was interested in and wanted to learn more about. Overtime, I realized that my passion for Networking helped me do better in school and pay attention and understand what I was learning. It also gave me the skill of time management and leadership. I was able to be on class on time and reached the deadlines for the work given to me. As for leadership, I began to start helping others with things they weren’t able to understand and being more proactive. The best part of being part of SkillsUSA was the fact that I was able to travel to Syracuse and Atlanta to compete with others in the Networking competition, and the fact that I was able to mold myself into a better person.
I was the same way in online school during quarantine. I used to get distracted because there was a lot going on in my house due to the fact that everyone was home. It was hard to pay attention at times because I would either be on my phone or going downstairs for something to eat. During online school, I never understood what I was learning because I’m more of a hands on person as well. I would also go out on school days, but I would have Zoom on my phone and be outside while in my online class. I also fell into the habit of being late because of this. I’m glad you found something to keep you focused and motivated.
I love this: I would have Zoom on my phone and be outside while in my online class.
OMG — I bet many of my students were doing this!
I couldn’t focus in online school either; I started slacking just as bad as you. I was completely unmotivated and bored, and after a while I just stopped joining classes. The transition back to School also took me a while to get used to, but you handled it way better than me. What do you major in now? I wish My High School had something like SkillsUSA that sounds like something I would have been interested in especially coming straight out of Quarantine.
During online it was the same for me and as it went on it became less serious to me and id be unfocused doing whatever i wanted like sleeping. I’m more of a hands on person so having to sit for hours uninterested and bored not retaining anything was just nothing to me. Im glad you found something that helped you changed your ways and to become more focused and motivated , it sounds like something you really needed to help you and i’m glad it did.
Being online was definitely challenging for me, exactly for this reason you mentioned. Doing all the school work + learning the lessons were difficult because of how distracting it was being home. I am glad you turned it around though.
Good work. You have some good material here Dhanesh. I can’t imagine you being a wayward student because in my class I see that you sit in front and you pay attention. Something saved you indeed!
Could this be a story of how the pandemic brought out the worst in you as a student? And then how SkillsUSA and the Networking club saved you?
Maybe you could start with a scene of you at home in a virtual zoom class where you are zoning out, not paying attention, and having this inner dialogue: “What’s the point of sitting here and I’m barely learning, I can’t even full understand the material, and why am I just wasting my time?” YOU COULD Add a part where you describe all the negative ways you dealt with online-school: “Overtime, I started leaving the house to go hang out with my friends, stopped joining class, doing the work, and woke up late.” Maybe show a scene of hanging out instead of going to class — Where did you and your friends meet up on a regular school day — a bodega? the park?
Then you could move to showing how Skiills USA savedyou.
This could be a great scene — It sounds amazing: You write: The best part of being part of SkillsUSA was the fact that I was able to travel to Syracuse and Atlanta to compete with others in the Networking competition. SO CAN YOU CREATE THEATRE OF THE MIND here? Make a scene. Choose the Syracuse or the Atlanta Networkking Tech competition and SHOW me what the competition arena was like? What were the other competitors like? What was the room or the computers like? Show me the thoughts in your mind (inner dialogue) or show me the convo between you and your team mates.
Make an outline and get started!