I went to Bluestone Senior High School in Skipwith, VA.  It is located in Mecklenburg County about an hour and a half from Farmville.  My time there was interesting--to say the least.  It is a really small school, my graduating class only had 133 students in it, and it is located in a very rural part of Virginia.  It is about half an hour from NC, and the county itself is comprised of mainly farmland.  

I spent four years there, but in my second semester of my sophomore year, I was able to take dual enrollment classes.  Dual enrollment classes, for those who do not know, are classes you take that give college credit as well as satisfying high school requirements.  At the end of my sophomore year, I tested into Governor's School.  Governor's School is like dual enrollment except for instead of staying at the high school, I was able to go o the community college for half of the day.

It was there that I found what I wanted to study in college English.  Before then, all English classes were full of workbook exercises and other busy work. I hated English.  That all changed when I learned that English was more about the literature and how it had to do with the author, the culture where it was written, and the social and political ideas of the time.  The difference between workbook and literature made me decide to pursue English in my future. 

Before then, I was going to study history, but from then on, I realized that literature is the history of a culture through writings and feelings of the authors.  Literature is not only the history of an era/culture, but it also remains true for all time periods.  

I was in Marching and Concert Band in high school as well.  Band was my extracurricular activity.  Other people do sports, academic teams, or clubs; I did band.  Band was my favorite thing about high school.  It was where I made lifelong friends and it was where I found a love for music that still burns to this day.

By the time I graduated from high school in May 2013, I had already received an associate’s degree from Southside Virginia Community College.  I enjoyed my career in high school, but I am glad I learned what I did when I did because I would not want to go back knowing what I do now.