Walking onto the campus, freshman nervously flooded into the buildings. One of these freshman, Darian Cabrera, experienced first day jitters like other freshman.
“Don’t be nervous about high school like I was because a few months in you will be enjoying it more than you think. I know I did, and I believe my freshman year was the most eventful,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera participated in the boys bowling team and the programming team. Cabrera enjoyed hanging out with friends, but occassionally chose studying over hanging out with them.
“[My fondest memory was] homecoming senior year as it was a fun night out with all my friends, it made me forget about school and enjoy a night out. After homecoming, we hung out around a fire at one of our houses and roasted marshmellows,” Cabrera said.
Throughout high school, Cabrera maintained a 4.0.
“I came into high school not even thinking about [maintaining a 4.0] at first. In fact, I did not realize I had been maintaining a 4.0 truly until the end if my sophomore year. I knew that I needed to keep doing what I was doing-putting my best effort in each day,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera’s biggest motivation to succeed came from a fear of failing himself.
“My fear of failure [is my biggest motivator], and not in a bad way. I always told myself that failure is not an option and of I want to achieve great things I need to strive to be successful. That kept me on task each and every day,” Cabrera said.
Cabrera will continue his educational career at the University of Central Florida and he plans on majoring in Criminal Justice.
“Since I was in middle school I have had a strong interest in doing investigative work and solving cases. I felt the career field has plenty of opportunities for me to enjoy this type of work,” Cabrera said.