This past week I visited three middle schools in Peoria and was able to speak to their students about the International Baccalaureate (IB) program offered at Richwoods. When I was up in front of them speaking, I reminisced on the many memories that flooded my brain as I stood up there, my journey getting into IB and thinking about where I was at in the present time. I thought about the seniors that visited my school my eighth-grade year, reflecting on the things they told me and the questions that my peers and I had asked them more than four years ago. 

     Right before I sat down to write this article, all I could think about writing was all of the stress, amount of sleep I had lost, and even some of the tears I shed. But looking back at the beginning, it was not all that bad. Since it was only pre-IB my freshman and sophomore years, the classes were relatively easy, and I had plenty of time for other extracurricular activities and time spent outside of school. The things those seniors said to 13-year-old me seemed not too hard, as I kept thinking to myself “Hey, this isn’t so bad”, unaware of the rude-awakening that was waiting for me my junior year. The moment it began, everyday it was “CAS hours” this and “Internal Assessments” that, so on and so on. It didn’t exactly help that I was taking chemistry either, undeniably the hardest class I have ever taken, and that I was dealing with issues at home and outside of the classroom. As a result, my grades went on a downward trend, having a detrimental effect on my GPA. 

     After the year ended, I vowed that I wouldn’t allow myself to fall into a hole like that, especially since now my college transcripts weren’t going to look as great because of my grades that year. But it taught me so much, and that is ultimately what the whole premise of IB is, getting its members ready for college and the real world. The negatives of that year made me think of all the positives that I experienced that year, mainly my friends who helped me get through everything. Even running track and field, as painful as it is physically, became a mental stress reliever for me, as I had dropped my 400-meter time substantially, running my best time of 53.75 seconds, arguably the happiest I had felt all year. Even now, two months into my senior year, I see all the positives of IB. It taught me discipline, proper time management, strengthened my focus and resilience, and a new sense of responsibility.  

      I’ve thought of each of my high school years as 100 meters of a 400 meter race, with me being in the final stretch. Despite the stress and pain, I’m not far from the finish line. I may not have done everything perfectly, but I can tell I will be pleased with the end result. I think of all the moments with my friends that I will forever cherish which I made through IB, the teachers who have helped me get to where I am, and how I have implemented my passions into my schoolwork and my future. IB has prepared me for the next race: college education, career goals, and going into adulthood. I look back at what those seniors told me and think about my own journey, and I am glad I went through it all as it shaped me into the person I have become, and I am proud of today.