Everything was going good for me but not for mom. This was horrible news when I found out we were leaving Atlanta. This was good and bad news for us. The school I was leaving was one of a kind. Being able to go to class like a college student at an early age was fantastic. I knew I would be leaving important people behind, but there was nothing I could do. I was starting to make progress with my new school, becoming a better person and making good grades. If I moved I knew I was going to have trouble starting all over again.

My mom decided to move back to our home town Tallahassee, where we had our family and where she had a better teaching job offer. I finished out the school year and moved the start of my sophomore year. I knew it was home, but I also knew I was going to be attending a public school for the first time in my life.

Since we already knew what the schools were like in Florida, there was not much difficulty finding a school for me. The school I was attneding a quite bit bigger than my last school, and since it was not a college schedule, I had to get used to going to school every day, to the same classes over and over again. It took time for me to get used to my new schedule, but as the school year kept going I managed to get it done. My concern while being at Godby was making friends. Coming to a new school and a new environment, I knew I was not going to be able to fit in. I relied on my athleticism to let people notice me. I was a one sport athlete my sophomore year. I decided to take a break from basketball to focus on football. This was the best decision of my life.

When football season came along, I thought I was not going to make the team. The guys were bigger, stronger and faster than my last team, but I did not let that stop me.

After a few days in the season, I got my chance to finally start in a varsity game. That day came and was the most memorable day of my life. I was the only sophomore to start that day, I was nervous when the game began that I would mess up. Snapping out of this negative thinking I told myself I’m the best. This game turned out to be my best game of my season. I had three interceptions, a sack and seven tackles. Not only did I start that game, but I got my first two full scholarship offers that day from University of South Carolina and University of South Florida. The coaches watched my film over and over and could not believe that I was only a sophomore. They wanted me to get bigger and stronger at the time, and that was the only thing I needed to work on. I would never forget that day. It was that day that changed my whole life around. It was the best feeling ever as a sophomore.

Football then became my life and helped me gain friends. I was no longer shy and scared of my new school. As football season started to come to an end, I found myself with another scholarship offer after losing in the second round playoffs. This offer was from University of Tennessee. My high school career was beginning to brighten up even though we lost. I never thought I would receive offers as a sophomore, it was a blessing. Now that football season was winding down to the end, I had left in my sophomore year was to work out and make good grades so I could be a junior.

My junior year came quickly. I was still attending my old school and my football career was getting even better. After a whole summer with the team I began to make friends and get stronger. I was ready to start my junior year. As it began, Classes were easy, friends were being made and football was near. My junior year felt easy to me until I had one slip up. As I was slowly becoming popular for football and classes were easy, I made a mistake by letting schoolwork get behind me. At one point of time I stopped studying and focused on football. I was becoming a star. I had offers from every college in the world except Alabama, Florida and Oregon. I could go anywhere I wanted. As the season started our team went fourteen and one. This was the year we won state. Football was the only thing in my eyes at that time, not grades. After all the glory and victories during the season, I found out that I might not be eligible to play college football. We didn’t find this out until the end of my junior year. Everyone was so caught up in the moment that we forgot the most important thing, grades.
That summer was going to be the most difficult summer of all. It was the only time I had a chance to catch up before my senior year. The plan was to take three online classes to misplace three D’s that I had made. I knew it could be done, plus I had no choice. During the first two months of summer I got two of the online classes finished. English and Math were the two classes. This was a difficult task because I couldn’t go on my own pace. The classes had to be done in a certain time and in a certain amount of days. There was only one class left to finish up and my grades would be back to normal.

One day my older brother called and had a long discussion with me. My brother Lionell and I are very close to each other, I can say that he is like my dad. Lionell was living in Washington State at the time. He had a plan he said.

Lionell’s plan was that I move to Washington for my senior year and finish up the online course and keep focused, which I did. I am a senior now. My dad, little brother and I all moved to Washington before school started. My second eldest brother and mom both stayed in Florida to finish their master degrees. I thought to myself this could be fun, but I’m only moving here to stay focused. My brother already had a school in his mind before we moved here. We took a visit and immediately we felt like it was the right place to be. Everyone felt welcoming and friendly. This senior year I thought could be interesting and a new beginning.

Senior year came by quickly and school was started. Football was still a big part of my life and couldn’t I give it up. Football season turned out to be the best one I ever had. I won state two years in a row and at two different schools. My dreams were slowly coming true. While I was doing good for my first semesters of grades and the online class were finished.
I knew I could do it, but then a big bump hit me. My second semester of grades turned out to drop slowly because I got lazy. This was becoming a repeat of my junior year. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, especially not myself. I am working very hard to catch up and graduate hoping this move to Washington was not a waste of time.