“Kanden!” the teacher yelled. I had caught myself goofing off in class again. This was one of the reasons why I almost got held back. I go to kenowa Hills and around halfway through the year of 7th grade, my grades dramatically dropped. I progressively fell behind in my school work. I was missing assignments left and right.

“I know Mom!” I repeated, “I’m trying to do better.”Everyday was the same thing; I’d listen to my Mom’s lecture on how to improve my grades. Part of the reason that made her more angry was that my brother and sister always had A’s and B’s. I was the child who had D’s and C’s. My mom was confused because this was the first year that my grades were this bad. She then decided on her last resort: she was going to hold me back a grade. My head spun around the idea of redoing the whole year. I could not imagine that.

I, of course, was not happy with this decision. I knew right there and then that I had to change my grades and my amount of effort before the end of the year. I did not want to redo 7th grade at all! I also started to regret all of the days I just sat in class doing nothing, all the days I didn’t turn in my assignments, and all of the days I didn’t listen to my teachers. Every single one of the teachers all talked about procrastination and how to avoid it. I was just too lazy to listen to them.

“I have to change my grades. I just have to.” I pondered for the hundredth time. I was always thinking of this situation and also how hard some of my classes were. Mrs. Gregory and Mr. Nienhuis were especially the hardest classes for me, which explains why I had a D’s in their classes. Aside of my grades I would also disrupt the class by talking to my friends. I did this because I could never focus and school just seemed boring to me. I never wanted to be disrespectful; it kind of just happened.

As the end of the year neared, I began to lose hope that I will turn my grades around. The thought of getting held back ran through my head every day I thought about it. I almost gave up… but, it was actually thinking of getting held back that began to motivate my work ethic. I was thinking of not hanging with my friends, and doing all of the same boring work over again. When you think deeply about it, doing all of that stuff again over again could make the person so stressed that they could go into depression.

There were only a few more weeks of school- it was unknown if I was going to redo the year. Thinking of the outcome really pushed me to do better and fix my grades. Not to mention, my Mom also motivated me.  I’d say that I really learned a lot from this experience. This showed me that if you don’t put in any effort into school, you won’t be rewarded by passing the grade. Ever since then, I have been trying to pay more attention to my teachers and take more pride into my work. “Kanden” the teacher said, “Great job on your improvement.”