I still remember the day we had the freshman orientation. For me, who came from China by myself, the four-year high school life is going to be a challenge. I was panicking about my new life in another country. I was 14 years old and I can barely speak English fluently. The only way I can help myself adapt to the new life is by making new friends, and I am lucky I got many friendly classmates. 

They told me how to use Snapchat and later I had my first friend on Snapchat. More and more people had me as a friend by the end of the year and I had my Instagram account in the middle of the year. Without the help of the classmates who taught me to use these, I probably would still be the kid who is scared to answer teachers’ questions and had no friends to talk to. 

The teacher that inspired me the most was Mr. Kirsch. He is my homeroom teacher and also my algebra teacher. His class is one of the funniest and I enjoyed his class. It was my sophomore year and his encouragement to me was inspiring. I just cleaned out a notebook from the bottom of my stacked school stuff. At the end of the page, Mr. Kirsch wrote a big 100 with the comment, “Great work, keep going, you are very intelligent and I know you will succeed in the future.” Thanks to Mr. Kirsch for the effort he put in teaching and bringing me a wonderful sophomore year. 

There is half a month until our graduation ceremony. Although there are many cultural differences, I enjoyed my life here. Thanks to Mrs. Gimpel for sharing classic literature and teaching me how to write in MLA format. Thanks to all the rest of the teachers who taught me before: you guys made my time in Carroll meaningful and grateful. I will miss my high school life and I am looking forward to my college life. Goodbye, my senior year at Carroll.