My challenge in 6th grade was not doing homework and not paying attention.

I struggled very
hard in my 6th grade because I used to always ditch class with my friends. One of their names
was Meriam. Meriam was a bit chubby, but she wasn’t insecure. She loved herself and she didn’t
care what other people thought about her. She had brown hair and it was very curly. She hated it,
but I thought it was cute. She was my best friend. She was so rude and mean but at the same time
loving and kind. Meriam and I were very close and both of us did not care much about school.
We always ditched our Math class because Math sucks, and the teacher was extremely annoying
and loud. That day we had detention, Both Meriam and I. The officers called my house telling
my mom..

“You daughter was ditching class during 2nd period, This is just a warning. Next ditching will
lead to Suspension.” The school called.

I don’t know, it was something like that. When I got to my house I was so relieved yet so
stressed. I took a long nap on my couch, and of course I didn’t do my homework, neither did I
care. My house was so warm and humid, for once it felt kind of nice. When my mother came
home, I could hear the back of my brain feeling like a heart beat, beating 10 times a second. I
was just so nervous I couldn’t even breath. She had a long talk with me, at that time I couldn't
even care less.

“Rita, This is the last time i’m telling you, if you don’t bring up your grades, I’m taking your
phone for a whole month.” My mother said.

That got me really frustrated, I didn’t show my feelings back then, I just had a straight face on.
The next day, I told my other friend, Pamela, that I can’t ditch class anymore. I did ditch class
that day. There wasn’t a phone call or detention, I was just sneaky that day. By the way, Pamela
was my other bestfriend. She was a bit shorter than me. She was very cute and always nice.
Unless someone says something to her first, or when she didn’t have the best day. We made fun
of each other’s ethnicity but it was just a whole big funny joke. We never took anything serious.
Well, we were more mature in 7th and 8th.

- One year later.

It was almost 7th grade. My sisters, Mariam and Sarah had a talk with me. Mariam was a bit
taller than me at that time. I was a midget. My sister, Sarah was also taller than me. Mariam was
very rude but you can tell that she cared about me and what I do in school, and so did Sarah.
They were both just trying to help me through my struggles and problems.
“bro, you gotta go your work, or you’re gonna fail 7th and you’re gonna have to redo it, and you
won’t get to graduate with your friends.”

“aye rita, you know the schools check your grades from 7th and 8th?? you better work really
hard.”

When they told me that I was honestly annoyed. When 7th grade started everything was so easy.
Except for math. Math was probably my second biggest struggle. So.. School started and the
teachers were introducing themselves. I think my favorite teacher would have to be the english
and the science teacher. The english teacher was so kind, she was like my second mom. Her
name was Ms. Hernandez. She cared about everyone and had no problems with anyone. When
people disrespected her, she took them outside and talked to them very nicely. She didn’t talk
back or send students to the detention room or even call our parents. She didn’t like to see us
struggle and she would always help us. My science teacher was Ms. Campbell. She was so funny
and joyful. When you entered her class you forgot about all the stress that happened during your
other classes. She was kind and sometimes if you tell her that you didn’t feel so good, she would
tell you that it’s okay and you can sit out for a while to kind of calm your mind. When we really
didn’t feel good, she would call our parents and let them know.

I got good grades.

I tried hard.
I did all my homework.
I didn’t get any detentions or phone calls.

I even went to my friend’s house for school work, and we always end up gossiping or making
prank calls. I still finished my work, even though I enjoyed prank calling and not so much
gossiping. Her house was so nice and small. She lived in an apartment next to the brickyard so
we always used to go there and get something to eat.

I was tired but that wasn’t the point. The point was I made my parents happy and that made me
happy. We were a whole big happy family with my good grades. It was so different, I tried so
hard everyday and made sure I did my homework until I finished.

sometimes when I went to sleep early, my mom asked me to show her my homework. We had a
lot of it and she couldn’t believe me if I finished early. We had an IB school, and everything for
us was twice as hard as any other school.

“Are you sure you’re finished?”

“Yes, mom.”
“Let me see first.”

It kind of bothered me that she didn’t believe that I would finish in time.
I don’t really blame her because she cared me and she just wanted to make sure that I do my
work.
So this is my story, I overcome my problems by something so simple. I deep conversations with
my sisters. They had been through 7th grade already, and one was even a student in High School.
I was just afraid that I would fail and not be with my grade.I already been to summer school in
6th and I wasn’t trying to go this year as well.

I do not regret trying hard because now i’m here.

Now, I’m better in reading.
Now, I study and i’m prepared.
Now, I learned more in math, and I’m not so bad at it anymore.