Tamir’s first day at high school was mostly scary but also one to look forward to. During the first day of school, he got up extra early, took a shower, got dressed and headed out. He took the 2 train since that train would drop him off at the stop closest to his school. The duration of the train ride, Tamir kept thinking of all the negative possibilities that could happen such as not finding his classes, getting lost, being in the wrong class, and being late. But he remembered what his friends told him in middle school. “Changes, whether it is good change or bad change can be used to shape who you are later when more changes occur.” As he got off the train remembering this bit of advice, he held his head up high and said “Today is the day I make this change.”

 He got there 14 minutes early and went up to the 9th grade desk to get his new schedule. He told the counselor at the table his last name, Carter. The counselor said she doesn’t see him listed and asked for his first name. He told the counselor “Tamir”. At this time, Tamir began to panic as his fears were starting to eat him up from the inside but he kept reciting the advice in his head over and over. The counselor told Tamir he’s not in the list of 9th grade students and then proceeded to ask the other counselors for 10th, 11th and 12th grade, for assistance just in case his schedule got mixed up. They searched and searched until the 10th grade counselor found his name in the pile. She handed Tamir the schedule and apologize for not letting him know sooner about the changes. Tamir was confused and asked his counselor, “What changes?” She told Tamir that he’s not starting high school as a 9th grader but as a 10th grader. In addition, he was automatically enrolled in a program called STEAM for CTE (Career and Technical Education) student. Tamir was both happy and confused but later went on about his day.

Throughout his time in 10th grade, he had trouble making friends because everyone had already known each other since 9th grade. He isolated himself and was scared to even talk to anyone in the class. However, a group of girls went to Tamir and started to have a conversation with him where he revealed that he’s new and that apparently, he had skipped 9th grade. After that day forward they became friends.

Fast forward later to the program STEAM, Tamir was enrolled in the Computer Science pathway which was one out of five that were offered. During his time in STEAM, he was given multiple certification exams which were designed just the same as the end of a term exam to assess how much you have learned. Tamir passed every exam but there was one particular exam that he couldn’t seem to beat and it was called Python. Python is a computer programming language used by many companies but can be extremely tricky to learn. Tamir and his classmates studied together in groups inside and outside of school to attain this certification. During the day of the exam, everyone was given 2 hours to complete the exam with a score of 70% to pass. Two hours came and went by and some of Tamir’s classmates were even done before the time expired. When the timer finished on Tamir’s exam, he had received a 58% which was not enough to pass the exam. Being disappointed, Tamir was close to giving up until his friends encouraged him to try again and study harder. Tamir tried again on his 2nd attempt, became unsuccessful, 3rd attempt, became unsuccessful and was given one more chance to pass or he would never be able to retake the exam. Tamir studied day in and day out until the day of his 4th attempt came. Tamir reviewed every question piece by piece and submitted 4 minutes before the expiration date. With the anticipation setting in, Tamir and his classmates desperately awaited the computer graded generated results to come back. After 2 long minutes, the result came back as “passed” with an 81% which was also the highest in the entire class.

 As Tamir and everyone began to cheer, the room stood still. The air began getting colder and colder with the lights beginning to flicker on and off. As the cheers began to die down, the environment started to get more and more ominous. The room began to fill with thick gray smoke and the doors slammed shut. A low pitch “hmmm” sound began in the distance and slowly made its way to the classroom at the end of the hallway. A pounding on the door started as a tap and then escalated to vicious poundings. Everyone panicked and tried every door to exit but no luck was made. Then all of a sudden, the computers began to shake violently with warning sirens following them. As everyone filled the room with screams, enormous green and yellow python snakes emerged out of the computers screaming the name “TAMIR”. In the blink of an eye, the snakes wrapped their bodies around Tamir and slowly dragged him towards the computers. His classmates rushed to his rescue and tried to pull him away from the snakes but the snakes were just too powerful. They did everything they could possible could for Tamir but sadly, the snakes sucked Tamir into the computer. The thick gray smoke began to fade away and the computers stopped their violent shaking. The pounding on the door began to subside and the eerie low pitch sounds tapered off. Efforts have been made to try to get Tamir back but as the days went by, everyone got discouraged. To this day, Tamir Carter is still believed to be in the computer that he was led away in but will always be in everyone’s memories. And, without a way to tell if Tamir is okay or not, one can only guess what he could be going through.