This is my high school career: Chris Coykendall

Chris Coykendall, senior

Wayne Thallander

Chris Coykendall, senior

My four years at Tracy High School have taught me a lot about myself as a person and about the character of my peers. High school is an experience that no other institution can provide, ranging from the friends you will meet or lose, the education you will be provided, and the events put on by the school.

My entire high school career has been at Tracy High, and it has meant so much to me. My graduating class of 2010 from Tom Hawkins Elementary was really close. Most of my friends now are from there.

Without my friends there was no way that I could have got through high school sane. There is so much stress and work involved in school that every student faces, hanging out with my friends helped me get my mind off of it.

Some major lessons I learned while in school academically are that most teachers want you to do well, so they will give you a lot of opportunities to make up work, and to do extra credit. I like that they do this because it makes my grades better but, college isn’t going to do the same thing. So, as I advance in my schooling, I will have to adapt to the new format of getting work done.

Some major lessons I learned while in school socially are that you can’t take life so seriously. I’m a big jokester and am a really easy going person. This helps me to get along with most people I met.

The thing I will remember most about high school are the relationships that I built, lost or kept strong throughout these four short years. I will remember these people for the rest of my life and hope to stay in contact with all of them.

One of my favorite teachers at Tracy High is Mrs. Meyers, the Ag/Science English teacher. She is one of the nicest and most caring teachers I ever had. She relates to her students on a personal level to help them learn better.

One piece of advice I would give to my freshman self would be focus a little more on your work and let the girls come to you.

If I could change something about my high school experience, it would have been to take Spanish 1 my freshman year instead of sophomore year. This put me a year behind my friends in foreign language, and I also had to put up with the annoying younger class.

My plans for the future are to go to San Joaquin Delta College at the satellite school in Mountain House. I want to get my general education there and transfer to Fresno State to major in sports marketing.

High school is the place where people find out who they are and what they want to be. In my experience, I found out what I wanted to do, but have yet to fully understand who I am as a person.