Brian Saephanh

High school wasn’t what I expected it to be. Some parts of high school were unbearable, but as everyone knows, you’re supposed to go anyway.

At the beginning of high school, it didn’t seem that bad, but that was until I figured out what I was getting myself into. Soon after, I became president of my freshmen class, maintaining a 3.67 GPA, but still something was missing. This is how I quickly became caught up. I eventually started to tell myself that since I was receiving good grades, I understood the material I was supposedly learning and I really was not. My sophomore year in high school my parents decided to transfer me out of George Washington High School into Raoul Wallenberg Tradition High School with my older brother. This was not a very good idea either. I was a native to big schools and here I was out of my “natural habitat”, in a very, very small school. I mean this school was so small that it only held up to maybe 200 students and had only two floors. I’m talking about a place where in all actuality everyone knows your name! I quickly became depressed with such a sickening situation at hand and as you can expect, my grades dropped shortly after.

Into the middle of my sophomore year, I moved out of the house I lived in with my family. I then started living on my own with six new people (roommates) who quickly became friends to me. Of course, I quickly had to pick up a job or two, and this made me fall even further behind in school. I transferred myself out of Wallenberg and into Independence High School.

At Independence, it was such a simple thought to assume I was doing well. I only had to attend school once a week for forty-five minutes. Technically speaking, how could I work two jobs and take good care of myself? I quickly lost my drive for school. Although I only had to attend school forty-five minutes once a week and I was doing the school work for seven classes. The only difference was I did the work at home. This was too much of a load for me and I ended up not even attending for that one day a week. This was during my whole junior year. It didn’t faze me much because I told myself school wasn’t for me right now.

In the summer of 2008, I moved in with my father and step mom. They wer both aware of the school situation I had gotten myself into. My step mom had a brilliant suggestion. She said her daughter had attended a wonderful GED class here and she managed to get out of high school within a matter of months. That seemed unbelievable to me. School was a mess, and graduating this year was such a far-fetched dream. It seemed so out of my reach.

Well, here at East Oakland Youth Development Center, believe the unbelievable. Ms. Anana Scott showed me something I never knew that was possible. She told me that not only is it about believing in yourself, it’s about surrounding yourself with positive people who also believe in you. Proudly I say I passed the GED exam the first time I took it, and I am a graduate as of October 16, 2008! Thank God! Even the impossible is possible!

Chenai Johnson, 2008