Avid

Through my four years in high school, I learned many things essential to my life, both personal and professional. These skills came mostly from a class called A.V.I.D. (advancement via individual determination). This class changed me from a ''primitive freshmen'', as one teacher called me; to the ''mature young man'' I am today. This, little known, country wide program teaches students the abilities they need to succeed in college, professional, and even social life. The first skill avid taught me, was organization.

I can still remember my eighth grade year. I was the most unorganized person in the school. I fought with my parents everyday about the way my binders looked. Papers were everywhere, both outside and inside of my binder. I lost my homework, teachers were yelling at me about not returning paperwork, what I turned in was torn and tattered, and my grades were poor because of it.

At the end of the year, my parents brought me in to have a conference with a recruiter for the Avid program. Her selling point for my parents was the help they give with organization, while the selling point for me was the promise of an acting career. The promise made to my parents was one that I will never forget. The first year in Avid brought about the biggest change in my life.

The change could be seen throughout the rest of the year. In keeping the "dreaded" three inch binder, I could easily find whatever I needed at whatever moment I needed it. This binder was required, I repeat: REQUIRED, to be kept neat and in chronological order. Now normally, my parents yelling at me wouldn't solve anything. It was the fact that the teacher really took an interest in my well being and my grades that really had an impact. I didn't realize this until years later, but she truly cared about what happened to me. After her threats threw me off the edge, I decided to change the way I did everyday things.

During one of our usual fights during the class, Mrs. Murphy, my first Avid teacher, and I made a deal: I would make nothing lower than a B in every class and she would get off my case. In order to keep up my end of the bargain, I had to change the way I organized my things. The old days of just throwing them in my bag or the pocket of my binder were over. I found it exceedingly easy to just open the rings and stick the paper of the day in the front of that section. Since the binder was already to that section so I could take notes, I gave it a shot and found life was getting easier and easier.

Another very important skill I learned from Avid was the ability