Articles

How Gap Has Helped Me

When I first came to Gap, I was looking for academic help as well as emotional help. There were a lot of gaps in my school record and I realized that time was on my side. When I came to visit Gap, I saw that it was a small, individualized environment that would help me. I know now that I made the right choice.

When I first attended Gap, I had really low self-esteem, therefore my school work was not up to par. Within the year and a half that I have been attending Gap Academy, I have made many positive changes. I have gotten out of the controlling relationship that had run my life for many years. My eating habits in the past had been very poor and unhealthy due to my low self-esteem. In fact, they were slightly anorexic. Through repeating my ‘five sentences’, entering a grocery store in the summer with a T-shirt (instead of covered up), being forced to be in photographs, having the impact of my food intake described using paper plates, and continuous confirmation that I am beautiful and worth something, I have reached the point where I feel a lot better about myself and my school work has noticeably improved. I can honestly say that there is nowhere else would have helped me in these ways. No one else would have thought of paper plates metaphorically representing food intakes.

Although I have made tremendous changes, I have a few things left to do before I go on to university. Gap staff’s analogy of a train on tracks that sometimes derails, but needs to finds its way back on quickly enough not to do any serious or permanent damage, best describes my situation. It’s about stability and moving forward, not backwards, even though temptation is sometimes strong. Just this last Wednesday, temptation was strong and my train took a detour, “I dangled my feet in the water while visiting the beach” so as to speak, which is another Gap staff analogy. With my personality and background, I have to very consciously and actively been aware of things that will steer me the wrong way. Perfection is not what I am striving for, just the stability and confidence to keep me on track.

I am going to take some accountability in saying that I have somewhat slacked off and I have not been doing enough work. I realize that in order to obtain my goal of going to university and succeeding. I will have to take school work more seriously. I feel that I am now capable of doing so because of my growing level of self-confidence.

In conclusion, Gap has helped me in many ways, and continues to help me make a better life for myself. I realize that this is my last chance and I do not want to lose it. In order for me to continue attending Gap, I will have to buckle down on school work and tie up those ‘loose ends’ (such as my continuing development of self-esteem), that I still struggle with daily. I also recognize that the school day begins at 9:00 and ends at 3:30, and I will respect those hours. Next semester I will be finally finishing my last high school credits. I really believe that Gap is the right place to do so.

A Gap Student 2002/2003

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