Good morning, everyone. I think most people here are still unfamiliar with me, my name is Andy Li. I transferred to RHP during the Junior year, and spent the first of my school year in my bedroom. Therefore, when I came to campus this summer, I felt everything was brand new. Meeting each one of you in person is completely different compared to meeting you on zoom, you guys look obviously more handsome and beautiful. Today I’m going to share my experiences during distance learning, the troubles I had and how I got them through.
Before I came to RHP, I was studying in a public school in Pennsylvania. When the pandemic began, the city immediately shut down all public schools including mine, therefore I accidentally got a holiday with no homework and due date. I stayed in my house and got nothing to do. I slept during the day, woke up all night, and soon started to feel isolated and lonely. I finished every video game on my laptop, but still felt empty. I want to find someone that I can talk with, so I started doing an online stream, played a very popular game called Destiny 2.
When I was doing the online stream, I found lots of people just like me, they were students. stuck at home with nothing to do. They all felt lost in life with no objective. Anyway, we formed a clan in the game, a huge clan with almost 200 people. In order to manage this clan, I had to spend all of my time on my account, or other player’s accounts, to help them ACE their PVP trails, or whatever was needed in the game. It is at this moment my life was completely taken over by this game, and I start to forget what a normal life was like before the pandemic.
Anyway, I’m not here to talk about my experience in video games, I want to talk about the consequences. After spending 2,000 hours in Destiny 2, One day I accidentally found a letter in the mailbox. This mail was sent from my old school, saying I would fail several of my classes. This was the worst nightmare I could imagine. Before this letter I never had any grade less than a B. But now I got 3 F. This letter was like a warning, a signal-which told me that I was on the edge of a cliff. And I had to make a choice: jump to the hill or turn back.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to turn back. I traveled from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles in order to start studying at Rolling Hills Prep. After this big move, my first trimester at RHP felt like it started so quickly, and it was hard for me to recognize that the summer holiday was over. I tried to adjust my behavior and sleeping schedule, but I couldn’t get it to work. I couldn't wake up in the morning because I got used to staying up all night. I missed meals prepared by my host parents and then had to order fast food during the middle of night. I kept missing work from my classes and again was headed towards flunking. Luckily teachers at RHP are different from the teachers at my old school. It didn't take long for them to realize the issue. They spoke with me and came to understand my struggle. And they helped me to form a plan, to complete my missing work and get me back on track.
I don’t want to let my parents and teachers down, so during the next holiday, I forced myself to stay away from anything related to video games but only focused on my homework. To be honest, it was really hard and uncomfortable for me, but after a few day’s effort, I finally started to make progress. Along with refocusing on my schoolwork, I also find something new to do besides video games, which is writing. I started to publish novels on the internet, update my chapters every day, and share ideas with my friends. It was at this moment I felt that I finally got out from the shadow of the past. It was at this moment I felt that I’m still capable of proving myself. I spent a week making my way back. In the next following month, I start to perform in class on time, doing my homework and getting the grade that actually belongs to me.
My tenth-grade year’s experience was a lesson for myself, it made me realize that bad habits can ruin a person’s life. But people always say: what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. If you have any trouble in your life, don’t worry about how complex the trouble is, but always try to overcome it. There’s nothing a person can’t accomplish in this world, the only thing that matters is how you view it.