Bridget Malone 

Malorie Seeley-Sherwood 

ENG 170-29 

9/7/21 

The Big Dream of One Little High School Kid 

Never will I forget the biggest missed opportunity of my 18 years of life. Sophomore year of high school, it was my second year taking German, with the classic “hated by all” teacher. My high school did not do trips a lot, because like any other school in the area, it was not in the budget. But every 4 years they found it in their tightly packed budget to hold a trip for each foreign language. French class went to France, Spanish class went to Spain, and German class to Germany. This trip was going to be the shining highlight of my whole high school career, a memory that I would tell my kids in the future, and most importantly, an introductory glimpse into seeing what the world outside of upstate New York, had to offer, as my biggest dream in life was, and still is, to travel the world. My big dream began to falter shortly after we received the information on how much the trip would cost, and at that point my window into the world beyond, that had slowly started to open, was slammed shut with the curtains yanked closed. Now I understood why the school only had enough money for the trips every four years, as this trip for one person, myself, was way out of my family’s budget. I knew then that not attending this trip, would be one of my biggest missed opportunities in life, but the emotional rollercoaster of this trip did lead me to learn that everything happens for a reason, as the trip was later cancelled anyway due to covid, and sometimes you need to appreciate what you have and recognize that dreams do not come easy, they are fought for, and those that dream must never give up on that dream, or they will never see it come true. Furthermore, the realization of not having enough money to splurge on this trip gave me my first glimpse into the reality of the power money has in this world.  

If you read this essay backwards, you would have no idea how an essay titled “The Big Dream of One Little High School Kid” led to talking about the hold money has on society or how society deems those with less money or below average income, inferior to those with lots of money. All because this innocent missed opportunity my second year in high school, taught me that life and society favor those with more money, and that many of the enjoyable things in life are not often available to those with a lower income, as people with high incomes and lots of money tend to have more advantages, more joyful experiences, and easier paths to achieving their dreams, all because they have more green paper than others. But rather than blabbering on about one of the many injustices of the world, which once started is hard to stop, I would like to go back in time and share a little bit more as to how I learned this from what sounds like a seemingly simple and innocent experience when I was 16 and had barely even reached puberty yet. 

I was going to start this off with a line like “it was an overcast day in mid-February”, but who even remembers those kinds of details from high school. Anyways, time period aside, it was my second- or third year taking German. My class was always the small yet rowdy bunch of students, even when German class out of the two other languages, always had the smallest number of students. My mom would always say the language sounded so ugly and throaty, when I would come home and recite to her what I learned in class that day. Nevertheless, it was the language that intrigued me the most out of our three options. My other sisters all opted for Spanish, but I wanted to be different, so German it was, even though my mom tried to convince me to opt for French instead, because it was the “pretty” language. German also was known to all as the class that all the classic troublemakers of high school, chose, therefore why German class, was the “bad” class. I always ended up having fun in German class, except for when new seating charts were presented. I always knew it was coming, as it always happens to me, but I desperately wanted to walk out of the class and never return whenever name cards were sitting on our desks as we walked in to class. I slowly dragged my feet, one ridiculously small step at a time, into the classroom to see my name card next to who everyone considered the rowdy or poor student, as to teachers I was seen as the overachiever with good grades. But the day when the trip was announced, me and my “rowdy” desk partner both turned to each other equally excited. 

The classroom erupted in claps and cheers, as did the whole hall of language classrooms due to also receiving news of a trip. My whole class and I were 100% intent on going on this trip. Currently no one is thinking about the cost or requirements of attending, everyone is simply happy to hear the best news of their entire week. As the week continues, more information about the trip was shared, including the costs, and each day there seemed to be more and more people changing their mind about going on the trip. At the end of the week, about one quarter of the class had decided not to go, including myself. See it was not that the quarter of kids did not want to go on the trip, it was certain circumstances that made it difficult for their families to send them on it. When I saw that other kids were also not attending the trip, I almost felt relieved that I was not the only one who due to certain circumstances could not afford this luxury, or in my mind the first beginners’ step towards my dream of travelling the world. Maybe other kids in my class also shared my dream, some of whom like me could not go on the trip, or on the other hand could and were about to take that first step that I so desperately wanted to take as well. The experience highlighted the differences between kids in my class, home situations, or social classes. Which in turn ended up making this experience a significant event in my life, because it taught me crucial points or lessons about life, that I believe everyone should not necessarily believe in them, but acknowledge them or be aware of them, for example, the differences in lives led by people with huge differences in income or money, and the advantages and disadvantages that relate to how much money someone has. 

Contrary to what I originally thought, I do not want to end this on a pessimistic note, so I will end it by saying, that regardless of my family or I’s income situation, I will forever fight to achieve my dream, as should anyone else who finds themselves in a comparable situation, or who wants to achieve their dream, but finds themselves with more disadvantages than advantages because of money, just like this one little high school kid.