Florea Alexandru Valentin
11D
“We are offering a subscription to our magazine to the reader that sends us in the best account of
an important turning point in their life. This will be published in a special supplement called A
Fresh Start. Write a letter and tell us how you turned your life around and what made it happen.
Write between 220-260 words.”
For me, the major turning point in my life was after I started high school. This was due to
the plethora of changes, most of which were to do with my free time. Now I had a choice of a
whole bunch of after school activities which were a massive shift from what I used to have back
in middle school. And I joined lots of them, actually too many looking back. But this helped me
meet a lot of new people which leads me nicely into my first point.
This collection of clubs and what not led to a massive step in my evolution since this has
helped me become what I label as “an introvert playing the role of an extrovert” due to the
number of people involved. It was game-changing, since back in middle school I didn’t use to
have lots of friends and I was pretty shy. But, ever since 9th grade I transformed into an almost
different person at times, having friends across the whole town honestly.
Another benefit of having so many external courses like I used to have was the fact I was
actually learning a whole lot of skills in different areas. I started to learn about almost anything,
from debating to photography. This was really helpful since it helped me realize what I liked and
disliked, so I now have a pretty clear idea as to what I like to do and what I don’t. Also, it can’t
go unmentioned that all of the above have helped me become decent at managing my time, since
I had to be in so many places with little to no time-gaps in-between. At the same time as all of
this, I wanted to outperform my last year’s academic performance which was a solid “meh” so I
had to study more which added further time constraints that I managed to navigate somehow.
Overall, I can confidently say that entering high school was a radical change in my life
for the better, but I know that I still have a long road ahead if I want to completely reform myself
as a different, better person.