Jemmerio Kimble

Personal Statement
Experience is not what happens to you; its what you do with what happens to you. This
quote pretty much describes my life down to the final detail. y name is Jemmerio Kimble! and "
can proudly say that " had no idea who " was! or what " was meant to do until #ery recently. $s a
little %id! " was sure that " was &oin& to be a hu&e mo#ie star and ha#e a nice '( con#ertible
and more or less all types of materialistic thin&s. " had the thin&s " wanted and as%ed for and for
the most part! than%s to my parents. y parents come from humble! hard homes. Therefore they
made my situation &rowin& up much better than theirs while still teachin& me the essentials of
learnin& from stru&&les! and for that " could not be more &rateful. " was raised deeply imbedded in
the city life of $frican $merican culture! which focused a lot on children bein& exposed to thin&s
that may ma%e us rou&her around the ed&es. " was con#inced that nothin& would e#er &et in the
way of what " wanted. " could not ha#e been more wron&. (hen did " reali)e this! you may as%* "
was enli&htened on my #ery first day of hi&h school.
Knowin& that " was capable of &reater thin&s! " decided to apply for the +ouble ,onors
pro&ram at -incoln .ar% ,i&h /chool. " had heard &reat thin&s about it and bra&&ed throu&hout
the entire summer. 0n my first day of school! howe#er! my world imploded ri&ht onto my 1
th
&rade head and " didnt e#en %now it yet.
2ou can expect hours of homewor% e#ery ni&ht! because in this curriculum you will be
expected to learn at a much faster le#el than the students in 3e&ulars and ,onors classes. $s my
teacher uttered these words! my eyes nearly came out of my head. ,ow was " &oin& to &o from
one hour of homewor% a day to six hours of homewor%* " accepted the challen&e and tried to
%eep up as much as " could. 4nfortunately! school and extra5curricular acti#ities were too much
for me. " was out of my comfort )one and felt li%e " was learnin& how to process information all
o#er a&ain.
"ts not that the wor%load was too much to handle! or that the content was too difficult.
That was not the case at all! howe#er. y classes consisted of lectures! qui))es! tests! and more
lectures. /tudents were expected to %now the material before it was e#en brou&ht up to the class!
and discussions were #ery few and far between. .ersonally! " learn better when there are questions
bein& raised! statements bein& questioned! and ideas bein& challen&ed. "m more of an en&a&ed
learner! and the way my classes were run did not fit me at all. $s much " hate to say it! " &a#e up. "
really had no idea or wish to continue in this curriculum that made me feel as thou&h " was
learnin& absolutely nothin&. 4nfortunately! this reflected in my transcripts. " quic%ly decided
before the end of 1
th
&rade that continuin& in the challen&in& classes were not for me! so "
dropped down in some classes to honors! and re&ulars le#el courses. 'ut this pro#ed not to be the
solution; this only enhanced my self5doubt and e#er increasin& tendencies to lac% moti#ation or
&i#e up. 'ecause of my failures in 1
th
&rade " was set behind and e#entually ne#er cau&ht bac% up
because of my lac% of effort! combined with a mis6ud&ment in my priorities. 0ccasionally " would
show flashes of my potential and promise but it was ne#er consistent enou&h to harness. +espite
my intelli&ence! sports! loo%s! and supporti#e friends5 " lac%ed somethin& inside of me that left me
uneasy e#ery ni&ht and unable to maintain focus. 7e#er ha#e " had to cope with so many
consecuti#e internal failures and let downs than at my time at -incoln .ar%. 8onsequently! to this
day! " consider my time at -incoln .ar% as an internal odyssey and a #ital learnin& experiences in
my life because without it " would ne#er %now what it means to learn from a mista%e.. 7ow
instead of seein& my 1
th
&rade as a failure! " see it as a inte&ral part of my &rowth as an indi#idual.