LACES is both a middle school and a high school, and I entered LACES in the 8th grade. For the first two years of middle school, I attended Palms Middle School. Although my stay here was short, I did learn how to play card games, and had my first crush. Besides that though, nothing relevant was there and I didn’t fully develop a sense of community amongst my peers. Entering LACES in 8th grade was an extremely difficult situation for me, as students there had already been friends since 6th grade, and most came from the elementary school that I was supposed to go to. For the first few days, I wandered alone, looking at the kids with friend groups in envy, as I had nobody to talk with. Then I met an individual, Hyeon, in my history class, who introduced me to his friend group. I finally had a group of friends.
As the years progressed, I struggled with my peers in my AP classes, and as we called it, “The AP Trap.” This was due to the amount of AP classes that were offered here, and you would feel obligated to take them. In total, I have taken 11 AP courses at LACES, which doesn’t seem like a lot to me, but is certainly to someone not from LACES. This is the community in which I learned how to academically prepare for my classes, and set a rigorous standard for my assignments. never be forgetting.
Although some of my worst memories may have been formed here, most of my best are also here. My senior year at LACES was one of the most fun years of my life. Celebrating amongst my peers about which colleges we would attend, to a very memorable prom and grad night, there is no high school I would rather have gone to. No matter how much I may have complained about my workload, it was all for the better given the memories and connections I have made in life. My best friend, Stephen, is someone I met at LACES, and someone who lives right by Mar Vista Park, what a crazy world. The LACES community is one that was extremely accepting of an initially shy boy, to help mold him into the outgoing person he is today. My friend group here was the one that taught me the basics of dressing and taught me how to be more confident. The memories I have made here and the people I have made connections with are those I will never be forgetting.
