Reflecting upon my sophomore year, something happened to me that has never happened before: I got my first “B.” I heard other people talk about getting B’s and thought, “that will never happen to me,” but along came English Two Honors. I have faced many other challenging classes, like AP World History, as well as completing English One Honors my freshman year, all with keeping an A, but this class was incredibly challenging.
After securing a D on my first essay in Bryce Hadley’s class and taking the “soul crushing” (as he himself describes it) House on Mango Street test, I was very distraught and unable to understand what I was doing wrong to be receiving these poor grades. I had studied and prepared for hours, for both the essay and the test. This class was now causing me a huge amount of stress, as I did not know what to do to change my situation and felt greatly disappointed in myself.
Looking forward, I decided to study as much as I possibly could and was very determined to fix my grade. For many of the following tests and essays, I would reread the book multiple times, do every Quizlet I could find, and take notes in class, in hopes that some amount of the work I was putting in would translate to my scores.
Ultimately, nothing changed. Yes, my grades did get a little better, ending English Two Honors with a B+ first semester after a rough start, but this was not what I had hoped for. Coming from a student who had only ever gotten As, I wanted the A. Over time, this class taught me how to be a better writer and read with a deeper level of comprehension, which is what I choose to focus on, rather than a letter grade. The world is still spinning, even though I got a B.