It was a wonderful spring day. I finished my homework and headed outside to enjoy the weather. About five minutes later my dad came home. He didn’t look so well. He was very pale and puffy-eyed. In fact I had never seen him like this before. So, I knew something was wrong. He sat me, my brother, and sister down in the living room. He removed his sun glasses and we saw that he was crying. In a whimpering voice he said, “Your grandfather passed away today.” It hadn’t hit me right away, but my brother and sister started balling.

Over the next few days I realized I wouldn’t see my grandpa anymore. I became distracted and upset. I gave up in school and my grades started to slip. The people around me like my teachers, parents, and friends tried to encourage me to not give up and keep trying. But this made no difference to me. I was close with my grandpa and was deeply affected by his death.

One day, my mom sat with me in the kitchen and tried encouraged me again. I still wanted nothing to do with it.
“Shelby you can’t give up on your grades and schooling. This isn’t what Grandpa would want for you.”

“I don’t care. This isn’t fair. Why can’t you guys just let me be upset?”

“You can be upset. There is nothing wrong with that, but you need to keep up in school and realize your grades matter.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

After this talk I started trying again. When my mom said this isn’t what my grandpa wanted for me, that’s when I snapped and realized she was right and that I shouldn’t give up on school. I really focused the next few weeks. I started doing all of my homework and making sure it was turned in on time. The only problem was I didn’t have enough time before the end of the year to pull them back up as high as I would’ve liked to. In the end, my sophomore year grades aren’t as high as they should be but I have no one to blame but myself. Everyone goes through rough times but we shouldn’t let that affect our performance at school.