Worst of the best or best of the worst.

Before my sophmore year in high school I had always taken regular classes, doing an hour's worth of homework a week and rarely more if I had to read a book written by a third-rate author. I was happy where I was, I could "chill" with friends nearly every day for most of the 24 hours and still get above average grades. I remember I'd come home from school at about three, drop my backpack off then head out the door to skate and just "chill" in random places such as the local 7-11. We'd sit there for hours, just talking and joking. On weekends we'd get some "herbs" that my friend stole from his mom, then we'd go to this abandoned barn near the retirement home; I think at one time horses used to live there. I thought that was the life, nothing could be better. I probably was right, at that time none of us robbed drug-dealers or had been sent to JDC. We were just a bunch of care-free pre-teens/teens just living life to the "fullest".

The summer to ninth grade was a life-changing summer. I started to stop hanging out with my usual friends and instead hung out with kids from my local soccer team. Soccer taught me something that I can't describe. That summer I had also gone to Argentina for three weeks. God, those people there are poor, here in America my family is about the bottom middle-class, but there we were upper upper class reserved for the entrepeuners of Buesnos Aires, since everywhere else is a slum or wilderness. I tasted my first taste of luxury, for dinners we did not have waiters, we had maitredes (however you spell it..), we did not have just one fork but three, though I can't remember what each one was for. The drink was not water in a cup, but imported minerale l'eua ( minerale water) from France. After that drink came the finest wine of the country. The steak we ate was the finest Argentinian filet mignon ( Argentina is famous for their steaks). I like that life, to be the elite. To have power, wealth, respect and to be envied by many others. I enjoyed the stares I received as my family and I walked out the Christian Dior store with almost five bags filled with shirts and jackets made from fine wool and silk. When I wore my Dior jacket to school that following winter, my god did the girls love it. It wasn't something anyone could get at Hollister, Abercrombie, or Aeropostle. This jacket was imported, and the best thing about it- purple silk underneath the black wool. As the plane began to land at Dulles International airport, I felt a feeling, I mistook it for nostalgia of the people there. I now know it was longing to be elite here in America as I was in Argentina.

I live in one of the largest, richest counties in America. Not by money, but by pure chance. My parents bought our house nearly 25 years ago when Fairfax County was probably non-existant. Lucky for us the nation's capital was 20 miles away, now a 30 minuete Metro ride. During that summer when I returned from Argentina, I started becoming a better person and I didn't really know it. I stopped wearing clothes too big for me and instead wore tight fitted collars from American Eagle. My jeans no longer came from the Macy's sale rack, but from Pac Sun's constant "sales" on bullhead jeans. That school year, I averaged a 3.57 gpa in a county whose grading system is a 6 point scale instead of the usual 10 point scale. Meaning an 80% is a c+ for my country whereas in most other counties it is a B. If my county were like that, I would've averaged atleast a 3.84. The next year I started challenging myself and took AP World History. It's a funny thing, I had a C+ in that class but I received a 4 on the ap exam (above average) and scored a perfect on the SOL. However, my gpa average to a 3.5 that year, because of AP world and I somehow had a B+ in english when we did-literally- nothing.

This year in my junior year, for first quarter atleast, I averaged a 2.9-weighted. I am taking the two hardest AP courses- AP US History and AP Language and Composition. Whose exams have about a 20% total passing rate, 10% receive a 3, 7 percent a 4, 3% receive a 5, and about .5% get a 6 or 7. Which is above 100% I might add. My once concrete place on the social ladder is now wobbly, I no longer go out as much. In fact, I don't go out at all Monday thru Friday. I have too much work to due, whereas my "friends" can go out everyday of the week past sunset. Unbeleivably, I still get better grades than them, they take all regualr courses. We were once equal in school, until I started stepping it up and challenging myself. I no longer wanted to be the best of the worst, but for now I'll settle for the worst of the best.

Why step up my studies? To get rich later on. Now, I not only want wealth, but I also want to help the world. Like Paul Farmer, I want to cure the world. How much wider my goals and aspirations have become since I was a naive child. My mirror wonders where I've gone.

The price I'm paying to get into VMI, West Point or VTech.The price I'm paying for wealth to satisfy my greed. My friends are now acquintances, I am now the loser I once loathed and taunted.