Growing up, people are taught the importance of school and its attendance. They are taught to do well in school because it was something they had to do. Where I come from, in greater southeast Washington DC, I often found myself making the wrong choices my older brother did. I began to skip school days to hang out with him and his friends, whom were all older than me. My brother is five years older than me and four grades ahead of me and so were his friends. So there I was, about eight years old skipping school to hang out on the block with the older kids and my brothers. The older boys were his friends; which eventually turned into my friends. Their bad habits began to rub off on me as time went on. I was missing the main principles that were being taught in school, due to my lack of attendance. The main principles were known as reading grade level books and being at a reading level by a certain grade. But with me and my spotty attendance I missed out on a lot of content. But at the time, the districts public school systems and George Bush "No Child Left behind Act"" was passed, which led me to be sent onto the next grade level not knowing the material and becoming further behind. .
When we started popcorn reading in school, I often prayed that I wouldn't get called on because I knew I did not know how to read. My biggest fear was being called on and me stuttering and sounding dumb. It was more times than I expected that I got called on to read and I was often embarrassed because everyone including the teacher knew I could not read. There was no pressure on me going to school, so that's why I didn't take it serious which led me to miss out terribly. I often seen what my older brother was doing and wanted to be just like him. Skipping school, stealing cars, and hanging on the block all came back to on me. And there I found myself going into the fifth grade with barely knowing how to read on a third grade level.