I have a rocky relationship with my academic institutions. Although I understand that education is a good thing, and I knew from a young age why school exists, some unperceivable things about my older schools made me lose my academic interest and slowly caused me to descend into an unmotivated state. 

To this day, I still haven’t figured out how I once lost my academic motivation after the end of my fifth year of primary school. I’ll guess that I was extremely bored about the school itself, and I figured out that learning via online tutorials was actually faster than in-person education.

Five years ago, I moved to Arcadia, a place where schools are nationally ranked in the 99th percentile academically, and according to my cousins, the school experience isn’t as boring. So, along with my pubescent self, I stumbled upon middle school. In just three years, my middle school slowly helped me regain my academic motivation, that is, until coronavirus happened.

It was during that time in my freshman year when I realized the truthfulness behind my cousin’s comments. So far, I was being challenged. I had the ability to pretty much accelerate three years of math into one, and nobody prevented me from doing it. I had fun meeting my friends, exploring the classrooms and teachers, and generally having a better time here. I even regained most of my academic motivation, enough to try a crazy hard class schedule this year.

So, fast forward to the present day, where the schools aren’t in quarantine mode, and I finally surpassed my level of motivation I had four years ago. Yes, I did grow up, but I do believe that the place has an impact when facilitating any kind of growth. Better knowledge betters our understanding of the world,  better technology betters our quality of life, and as I’ve learned, better schools facilitate better learning. 

As the school that helped me overcome my demotivation of learning, as well as the place that helped me grow and morph into the reflective person that I am; thank you, Arcadia High School.

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