"You are in fabulous shape, do you have any idea of what university you want to attend?" The excitement that I felt was speechless. Not having an idea what college was at that time, I never thought of hearing those words as a freshman. I was one of those kids who was smart, but thought college just was not for me. I kept my grades high, but thought college was not for me. I started to realize that I would be fine without college and could succeed in life, but I still managed to keep my grades up. Sophomore year I continued to excel in in my education, but college was still not clear. I had no idea what SAT or ACT tests were, but certainly I heard all of my peers sharing their scores amongst themselves. I remember my first progress report of my sophomore year being four A's and two B's. I achieved something I thought would have never been possible. My sister pushed me to strive for more. She saw something in me that I thought I was not capable of achieving. I was enrolled in regular English two and remember Ms. Phillips, my English teacher, recommending me to take American Literature college prep. I was not sure if I was capable of being successful, but my sister encouraged me to take the challenge: I did. I slowly started to recognize what everyone else saw that I could not identify in myself. I had a hidden potential that I could not recognize, but was somehow so visible to others. .
Junior year I was struck by reality. I knew that if I wanted to be successful in life I needed to educate myself. I knew it would not be easy. I was more motivated than ever to pursue this dream that was never clear to me. I remember the day the AP meeting was held at the Citrus Hill theater, there I was, proving to myself that I was ready to accept new challenges. Chills ran up my body as we were introduced as the smartest students on campus. As the meeting commenced I remember Ms. Prosser, the AP coordinator, saying, "AP classes are challenging and sometimes tend to be harder than students think.