History Class Through the Years

        I've always loved history class. Really ever since 6th grade was when I started loving it. During the summer leading up the 6th grade, I started reading the Percy Jackson series. I just absolutely fell in love with the story and greek mythology. That sparked my interest in history. In 6th-grade history class, we learned everything ranging from Ancient Mesopotamia to the Ancient Greeks. I just found it all so interesting. I did really well in that class. My average was a 93. The following year, I was pretty eager for history because we were going to learn about something I also fell in love within history. That was civics. In class, I learned about the basics of the British government and then in-depth about the American government. I thought the class was super enjoyable. I again did well. I actually improved. My average finished as a 96.
        8th grade was when I felt like I really separated myself from the pack. It was also a time when I just became addicted to history. I really don't why. As time went on, 6th grade to 7th grade to then at the time 8th grade, I kept loving and enjoying learning about different topics in history class. I recall that I was only supposed to outline this one chapter for my group for a unit. Other groups in the class were supposed to outline the other chapters. However, I took objection to that. I hated that. I only trusted myself whether it's outlining, listening, taking notes on information that was given. Combine that with my addiction to history, I outlined all 7 chapters in the unit during spring break. I woke up at 7am each day to outline a chapter for 3 hours straight. When I showed my teacher history, he had a really concerning look that I actually did something like that. To a lot of people, doing something like that just for fun is really weird, however, I find it really enjoyable. Throughout that year, it was probably my favorite in terms of what I learned. I learned about American history ranging from the original colonies to the reconstruction period. My favorite part was learning about the civil war. It's just so intriguing. That was also the year when everyone in 8th was introduced to DBQ's which is known as document-based question. Everyone hates it except me. Since it's so hated, I call it death by question. I started using that because Mr. De Crescenzi called it that one time last year. We had 1 DBQ all year in 8th grade and I got a 97 on it, which my teacher claims it was the best among all 8th graders in the school that year. Anyway, I once again excelled in history. My average was improved again. This time it was a 97.

        For freshman year, I was really scared. Whether it was in general or how I would do any in class, including history, I was just super scared and nervous. That's obviously typical for an incoming freshman. You would expect a guy like me who was the elite of the elite in history class to not be scared or nervous for honors world history. But indeed I was. However, I quickly found out it was nothing like I expected. I somehow got better. My average was a 98. We had 3 DBQ's all year and I got a 100 on the first two and a 99 on the last one. I really should have gotten a 100 on the last one because my thesis was fine. My teacher took 1 point off on my thesis even though I went in during lunch and he told me my thesis was perfect. I was tempted to go to him so I could argue for that 1 point back that but I decided who cares, a 99 isn't the end of the world. Freshman year consisted of learning about the Middle Ages, the renaissance, imperialism, World War 1 and more. I definitely like those topics but they weren't my ultimate favorites. Still, my love for history continued to grow. Some days I wonder if I will ever stop increasing my love for it. My guess is probably not. I haven't even scratched the surface of topics in history. I can't wait for junior year, senior year and probably college to continue learning more. This year for sophomore year, it somewhat stinks because the year is essentially a repeat of 8th grade. However, we go way more in-depth and learn a bit more. So far, I had one test this year and I got a 96. When I found out, I got disappointed. Who gets disappointed when they get a 96? This guy. I really want to become a history teacher. I feel like I should be acing every single thing since I most likely will be a history teacher. I strive for a grade of 98 or better. What really got me mad was the fact that I could have easily gotten a 100 on the test. I messed up on two questions which I just completely failed on. I don't know what my brain was thinking. I should have easily recognized what was going in the document and then correctly analyzed it. I've never gotten tripped up on questions like that. It was very uncharacteristic of me. To be fair, Mr. Brennan did say it was an AP question. Still, I don't really care and I should have answered that correctly. If I wasn't addicted to history, me being this hard on myself when it comes to history class would probably be virtually nonexistent.