About Me
Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida; I am Jordan N. Whissell. March 20th 1992, a Friday morning at 2:00AM, I joined this world. I weighed in at 7 pounds and 12 ounces. I was raised in a town-home, located on a road named Arabian. My Grandparents from my mother’s side lived down the road. I was raised by them alongside my mom. She has always been a strong woman. When I was younger she made a noble effort to make our lives seem rich. She had success in doing that, until I grew older. I find it funny how cleverly our minds advance in such a short time.
My dad has always been absent from this story, except for those birthdays. The day where that one extra toy did not make up for his evasion of my life, but I pretended like it did; for dad’s sake. That is, when he even showed up. My father has struggled with life for many years. Looking at his actions, I see he searched the world for himself. He traveled and lived in different rural parts of South America throughout my childhood. He always seemed to bring back stories; which at the time had no meaning or relevance to me. Do not get me wrong, he was a great man, he just did not have a large influence in my upbringing. That may be for the better though.
As a child, I was like any other. I played outside, wrecked my mom’s house, and had fun with the simplicities. Once when I was 8 my Grandpa had gotten a new rear-projection television; however, I was not concerned with how my Saturday morning cartoons would look on it. I could only see the size of the box it came in. It was huge! I made into a full live-in condo; it even had a porch. I cut holes for windows, had a front and side doors, put in extension cords for lights, and even ran in a phone wire, so I could listen to grandma’s conversations with “The Girls.”
Elementary School was not a place for me. I was the fat kid, the loner, and made no effort to make friends. At the young age of 6, I knew then that I was not likely to see any of these other hooligans ever again in my life. So I figured why bother. One horrible thing did happen to me, however. I was evaluated and determined to have a learning disability. From first grade on I was sent to “special classes” to learn how to read and write. Looking back that was the worst thing they could have done to me. I am highly intelligent, and now have to relearn everything those classes restrained me from learning in the first place. Not all bad came of those years, I learned quite a bit from my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Roy Paul. He gave me a good since of discipline when it came to the importance of education. He was the tough type. He drilled it in hard, would even make you cry, and showed no care for doing so. It is not until my point of reflection that he was only that way, because he cared.
Not much changed upon entrance to middle school. I grew older, still making the same average grades. One thing did start to occur to me. As the hormones of all my other male friends kicked in, and I noticed them checking out our female peers; something else entirely was crashing down on my shoulders. I realized that I was not. Actually I was doing the opposite; I was admiring the looks of my male friends instead. From then on I knew my life was going to be different; I knew that I would be the “odd ball.” I turned my academic act around in the 8th grade. I decided then to make a discerned effort to just prove to myself, that I could do it. Sure enough, I started bringing home Report Cards suitable for primetime on the refrigerator.
I must admit that like many people starting their first high school year; the very first day was a nightmare. Like every other freshmen I was lost and had no clue how to find my classes. My goal was to make it through the day without looking like such the freshmen, that I was. Looking around, all that was to be seen was a sea of upperclassmen; they were catching up with friends and comparing schedules. The most annoying of all was watching them pick out the freshmen. It was a game unknown to me at the time.
I made it a priority to get into class as soon as I could. I just wanted to be with my own kind. My first class was Algebra I. I made it in and took my seat I have never been that still for an entire class period in my whole life. To be honest, I did not listen to a word the teacher had said. I could hardly organize my thoughts, let alone organize the pile of words he was spewing in the front of the room. The next challenge that day was located in the lunch room. I had no clue which line to get in. It took me the allotted time to find where they sell the food, and with the length of the lines there was no way I would have gotten my food in time. Nonetheless, I still tried. The rest of the day when by pretty smooth, and I met the rest of my teachers. By the end of seventh hour I could not wait for the bell to ring. Upon arrival of that time; I had enough of high school, and it was only my first day.
I must admit, that in my 9th grade year I was not incredibly intelligent. I was in ESE (Exceptional Student Education); and had been there since they first placed me there in the 1st grade, as I told you earlier. This in no way meant that I was not smart, but people did not look at it that way. Thus, it was something that you just did not mention to people. I had all regular, intensive reading/language arts, and ESE courses. My schedule was filled with classes I did not want all because of the one assessment in I was placed through in elementary school. I had started to correct myself in the 8th grade, but too much damage was done to get up to par by high school.
When I got my first report card I was in my ESE English class and when my teacher handed it to me her jaw dropped, I had Straight A’s. Which was better than anyone else’s in the class. I was actually in shock myself. For the entire second nine weeks she pleaded with me to drop her cores and challenge myself. At first, I had to disagree with her. I did not think it would be the best thing for me to do. But, by the end of the nine weeks she had me convinced, and I met with my ESE coordinator. She took one look at my grades and track record, from that she said there was no reason I should be in the ESE program. They did not exit me from it; instead they placed me on a watch program. This was just in case I could not handle what was ahead.
Within the next week I received my new schedule, and two out of the four classes I did not care for were dropped. I was placed into English I regulars. For the rest of the year I excelled I made honor roll every nine weeks, which to be honest, was something new for me at the time. When the time came around to pick the next years classes my Algebra and Science teachers recommended Honors courses. I was not sure if that was a good idea, but I figured they would know more than me when they saw someone with potential.
By my sophomore year I was a little less nervous on my first day. In fact I could not wait to get to my first class. I walked over to the wall where the schedules hung, and was delighted, because the first class on the schedule read: Engineering II. When entering I felt as if I were home, and we were picking up right from when we left off. Mr. Janci welcomed us, and was eager to be our instructor for a second year. The first thing he did was hand out our schedules. I glanced down, and prayed what I was reading was not true. It listed on my schedule:
- Period 1: Engineering II (Okay it’s what I wanted)
- Period 2: Drafting II (Okay I signed up for that)
- Period 3: English II Hon (Wait What I did NOT pick that)
- Period 4: P.E. (Okay, that’s Okay it a required course)
- Period 5: Biology Hon (Okay that is something I asked for)
- Period 6: Geometry Hon (Okay I remember picking that)
- Period 7: World History Hon (Wow! This is defiantly not something I signed up for)
My thoughts about this were mixed, the number one question that came to mind was “can I handle this? A schedule full of honors courses?” In the end decided to stick it out, and I am glad I did. It was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life. Not only was I in a learning environment that enabled actual learning, but I made friends that were finally on or above my level. The above my level took some getting used to. It was in that year that I met and became friends with Allison, she is now my best friend. Not only did I meet her but I also met: Jose, Ester, Lizbeth, Abby and Ashley, all of which influenced my life dearly.
I went on through that day meeting my teachers. In my 3rd hour I met this strange teacher. His name was Mr. Randolph, he walked in eager to teach, and bring higher education to us. I soon found out that it was his first year at Forest Hill. At first I did not know what to think of him. He was like no teacher I had had ever before. But, I soon came to realize it was his class (along with a few others and friends) that would make odd days, the better days, out of the school year.
The next class that day, brought fear into my bones; World history Honors thought by Mrs. Emerson, she was the one of those teachers; with a bigger bark then bite. But, in all honesty the first day, I was almost ready to drop her course. At that point I was thinking, “great just my luck she is my 7th hour, and I’ll have her every day.” But, now reflecting on it I don’t regret keeping that class.
My sophomore year was one of the most enjoyable in my high school career. I think that at the time, it was the invigorating of all my years in education. It went incredibly well.
By far, my junior year was the easiest to go into. I had friends, a bond with teachers, and most importantly; I was no longer a lower classmen.