When you start high school, you’re thrown into this new environment. AP and honors classes, class ranks and GPA, clubs and involvement, and the list goes on. When I was a freshman, I felt a little lost. I knew I wanted to be in the engineering program, but beyond that, I felt a bit underwhelmed with the other options for classes I could take at Riverside.
During my sophomore year, I joined the journalism program and learned how much I liked designing pages and using photos to tell stories. The engineering program and journalism helped me recognize a topic that I was interested in: Architecture. This new interest stemmed from wanting to look at a topic that used design, art, and problem-solving all in one. But aside from the Civil Engineering and Architecture class in the PLTW program, there was no option for me to explore the career path at school.
Because of this, at the end of sophomore year, I decided to take a series of Durham Tech courses for a certificate in Architectural Technology.
During my junior year, I spent three hours each day in architecture classes, hand drafting, lettering and sketching, on top of learning about construction and computer-aided design platforms. I later learned that the classes were standard weighted, unlike the typical dual enrollment courses, which get the same weighting as an AP class. Even though I did well in them, my class rank dropped significantly.
I spent a week panicking when I found this out, wondering if I should drop the program and go back to Riverside to load up on all the AP courses I could and try to fix my class rank. I had to decide what counted more: a higher GPA or continuing classes I genuinely cared to be in.
In the end, I decided to continue. Finding what you’re passionate about is one of the most important things you can do in high school. I didn’t follow the typical path of loading up on AP classes junior year. Instead, I took classes that challenged me and that I actually enjoyed.
Now, as I review my college options and make a decision, I wouldn’t go back and change my path.
The intersection of two topics I was interested in helped me grow. Without taking a step out of my comfort zone into Durham Tech and sticking with the Architecture classes, I would have missed out on an opportunity that helped me figure out what career path I wanted to take. I learned that sometimes the most valuable choices aren’t always the ones that look best on paper.
