I started out the 8th grade year as a changed boy, I had learned so much in 7th grade, and thought that the most valuable part of my Fenn career (Learning how to be a good student, which was learning how to try) was over. The fall was by far the easiest term of the year, for English and other subjects as well. Fits gave me an A on an assignment as long as I submitted it on time, and commented on the blog, generally I thought I was the real deal, but I hadn’t realized how easy Fitz was being.

The first taste I had of what was to come, were the midterms... I got a 4/13 on the punctuation, and only got a B because Fitz allowed me to correct it. “It’s fine.” I thought “It was just a little hiccup.” So I went on winter break feeling confident. But then my mother broke her leg... This changed the whole course of the year. She was in the hospital in Colorado for a month. During that time, school started again, and I had my grandparents, two sets of great aunts and uncles, my moms first cousin my mom’s other first cousin, and my uncle and aunt all look after me for a few days at some point. It took a village... But after not seeing her for three weeks, and my grades plummeting , she was flown back, and I saw her again.

It took me some time to get my grades back up in English, between the finals and my mom’s absence, I had a B- in English at the beginning of February, that meant that I had a lot of work to do. I spent the rest of the term trying to regain what I had lost, and did an alright job of it too, I just barely managed to get an A in English for the second term. Mostly because Fitz rounded up my 92.

I entered the third term with a new drive, a drive to get into secondary schools mostly. Even so, I gave English the best I had, and it paid off. Metacognition's , Literary Analysis’s, literary reflections, I did it all. I had this sudden drive to write that activated within me, I couldn’t let the Winter term hold me down. In the middle of the third term, we started reading Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on The Western Front. This was my favorite part of the term, as I got too read about WW1, one of my favorite hobbies, while also getting to read it from a point of view I had never explored before. The point of view of the German’s. Eventually though, I had to move on with the year. So I reluctantly finished the book, and began writing about other things. At the end of the third term, I got an A, and it was the most rewarding grade that I’ve ever received. I had a new confidence in English, and was ready for the finals, and now I am here, pouring my thoughts onto paper...