My Four Years At Coventry High School

Of course like every other kid following three years of middle school, I was about to go into high school, in this case Coventry high school. At first I was dreading this fact as I thought like from how many movies, TV shows and books I read, high school was going to be this place of misery with lots of homework that could never be finished, heartless teachers, towering bullies and one wrong move could result in failure. 

But actually going to there, understanding the setup, getting to know the teachers who welcomed us all in with open arms and the kids who were very friendly (at a majority of them were for me), I quickly adapted to the new environment. Then after four smooth and enjoyable years, I graduated with all my friends. Since it’s been years following my graduation, I think that I’ll look back at all my high school years and list them from least to greatest.

4. Sophomore year

I have to say that sophomore year was my least favorite year. While it got off to a good start when I started to see the kids who I last saw as 7th graders in middle school were now freshman, meet new friends and new teachers, things started to kind of fall down a little after some time. This is because we weren’t having the experience as we did last year of experience of a new school, I had to see a lady with a kid that I bitterly hated in middle school, one of my good friends moved away, I found out that a girl that I really liked had a boyfriend, and many of my friends stopped getting along with each other. But sophomore year wasn’t a bad year, it’s just that we didn't seem to accept the new changes too well.

3. Junior year

I have to say this was a better year. Although it did get off to a rough start for me because of the following reasons:

-Having a different bus schedule without the kids that made it enjoyable.

-Different teachers from the past two years. 

-Being in gym class with the kid that I hated. 

-Finding out that my favorite teacher didn’t come back. 

-Being in a different lunch room. 

-Not having classes with some of the kids from last year and also one of my good friends switched out of all my classes. 

Yeah too much new thrown at me at once. But as the year went on, I started to do different special things like being more social such as working with my friends on how to finish projects easier, doing culinary dinners where I served my family dinner, and going to gym mentor where I got to do special activities with some of my friends although that kid was there. I also got to meet different people that made my classes enjoyable and funny. Plus I also started to develop a sense of humor sometime during the year that made both my teachers and classmates laugh.

2. Senior year

Senior was a really great year and certainly a great way to end my time at Coventry high school on a high note. I got to have classes with many old and new classmates I met over the years and I had some of my junior year teachers again. Not only that I also attended events like homecoming, senior prom, and senior supper. I even passed my graduation presentation and developed a friendship with a certain schoolmate who I knew from long ago and previously just said “hi” to in the hallways.

There were some unfortunates like not having classes with one of my good friends and having a different culinary teacher. But otherwise it was an amazing year that officially ended at graduation where, much to my surprise, I received a gold medal for having a positive attitude that made my mother bursts into tears. I’m really proud of myself for making it through senior year and I feel like I handled the ending very maturely.

1. Freshman year

I have to say freshman year was my favorite one. It was a new year at a brand new school where me and my friends got to have more freedom than in middle school, cool funny teachers, meet new classmates, and I got to be with my brother who was a senior and see his friends that he talked about a lot in the same school as me. It was definitely a great start to a new school and one that I’ll never forget. I also would like to give thanks to Will Brown, my brother’s friend, who came and ate his lunch with me when he saw me by myself. I hope older students (or any other one in general) would be more understanding if they see someone eating lunch by themselves and offer company. It was really helpful for me. 

So without a doubt, high school really was an amazing experience for me. But like I said, I initially was terrified because of all those anecdotes regarding high school drama and being someone autistic who believed something like that could happen to me, I didn’t like the idea of being in high school. 

Thankfully, those beliefs were proven wrong. I had loads of close friends that I bonded with in class, lenient teachers who were very supportive and fun, lots of career/special program choices that we could do and (in freshman year only) got to be with our older siblings who in turn got to meet some of our friends. 

In fact, I believe this what all students with autism (including other special needs in general) require in order to feel accepted into such an advanced school system that at first might feel an intimidating hellhole for them to be forced to endure mental suffering but actually could not turn out to be so bad after all once the points are made clear.

All of these are what helped me in going through four amazing years and I wish the same for other students. Even if they don’t think too highly of the system, I still hope it turns out to be understanding and helpful for them. 

My high school year book from senior year.