The Positivity Issue (v.13)

potential
Charles Austin-Ross
In two thousand and nine I was a freshman in
high school. At that age I didn’t know that I would
be twenty-three in seven years, let alone be dealing
with the stress that comes with being a twenty-three
year old. The only twenty something I
knew at that time was my sister and she was off
in college. Needless to say I wasn’t influenced by
her very much in that time of my life because she
was in North Carolina studying at the prestigious
Duke University and I was in St. Louis acting like
a fool. My main influences came from Music, TV
and School.
Metro Academic and Classical High School was
a place for the brightest individuals; anything
below a C- was considered an F, and if you
had three F’s you would be “asked to leave”.
Bright was not how my teachers would describe
me and so when I walked in to school on the
first day I was already intimidated by high walls
and serious teachers. I would say I cared less
about my classes and more about my friends.
Metro pretty quickly became an access point to
our frequent vices as an escape from the stress.
Keeping that secret from those around was my
utmost priority. #truly
Lots of things happened in high school that I will
never forget. When I was eighteen, I was failing
math horribly. Consequently, I was going to fail
out of high school too. I would have to tell my
parents that I wasn’t going to walk the stage with
the rest of my friends, and even more dreadful;
why I was failing Math.
I remember the vice principal of my school approaching
me in the cafeteria.
He said “You’ve got a lot of potential Austin but you
know that smile isn’t going to get you everywhere.”
He patted me on my shoulder and walked away.
“Ha!” I thought.
I knew what he meant, but it was lame so I pretended
like it never happened.
In my heart of hearts I knew that he was right.
He knew that I wasn’t doing my homework and
he knew that I wasn’t passing my tests. I felt like
a piece of glass, and in that moment I was about
to crack. Up to that point I had pretended like
everything was okay, and that my habits couldn’t
change the trajectory of my life, but I was discovering
quickly that the opposite was true.
I was sitting at home when my best friend Morgan
called me. He said candidly, “Bro, where are
you? Mrs. Funk said you haven’t been to school
in two weeks.”
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