This narrative essay describes the author's goal to graduate in the top 20% of their high school class and the steps they took to achieve this. The author worked hard from their freshman year, getting good grades through dedication and committing to their education for all four years. They also made wise decisions, realizing through their AVID college prep class that priorities like homework took precedence over social activities. On graduation day, the author accomplished their goal, ranking 39th out of 300 students and graduating Cum Laude. Hard work, dedication, and wise decision-making helped the author achieve their goal of a high graduation ranking.

1. Tatianna Bailey
English
Narrative Essay
Graduation
Everybody in high school looks forward to graduation day. I was looking forward to
graduation myself, but I had a higher goal in mind. I wanted to be in the top 20% of my
graduating class. At the beginning I didn’t know how I was going to get there, but I knew that no
goal was ever too hard for me to accomplish. Failure wasn’t an option, so I kept my mind set on
the bigger picture. Hard work, dedication, and wise decision making helped me to accomplish
my graduation goal.
Hard work just didn’t start my senior year, it actually started the first day I walked into
my freshman class. My teachers always told me that my freshman year would determine my
senior rank. I went above and beyond on all my work that was given. My whole freshman year I
received all A’s and two B’s. These grades weren’t just given to me, but I hard to work hard to
accomplish the goal that I had set myself.
Dedication is sticking to a particular task and not stopping until the job at hand is done. I
made a choice that I was going to succeed, and I did just that. I couldn’t just do my best for one
year and think the job was done; no this was a four year commitment. Don’t get me wrong my
four years in high school wasn’t always a piece of cake, but I couldn’t give up when the road got
tuff. I dedicated my life to make sure my dreams would turn into reality.

2. There were so many decisions that I had to make while I was in school. Some were good
some were bad, but I couldn’t let my bad decisions outweigh my good ones. I was in a four year
college prep class called AVID. (Advancement Via Individual Determination) Avid was a class
that helped me in many skills, but decision making was one topic that stood with me. My teacher
gave us many choices that we had to pick which one would benefit us in the long run. Taking
this class made me realize that doing my homework was more important that going out on a
school night. Nobody could do my work for me, so I knew if I wanted to make good grades I had
to put some things on the back burner that wasn’t as important. Decision making is by far one of
the most impacts on me when it came to doing the right thing.
May 31, 2012 finally came. I made it to graduation day. Ranked number thirty nine out of
three hundred students was one of my biggest high school accomplishments. I was a Cum Laude
graduate, and my name was one of the first ones called. I could have easily taking the easy way
out and just graduated, but I wanted to be more than just a number. I wanted to look back over
my high school years and say that I gave 100% the whole way through. Lord knows hard work,
dedication, and wise decision making were the top three things that help me achieve my four
year goal towards graduation.