The Amanda Vought High School Story

My Name Is Amanda Vought and this is my story about high school:

I was born with a physical disability called Cerebral Palsy.. I started high school in 2000 at Forest High School as a freshman. My high school used to be called Ocala High School. I was a good kid in high school but I had very hard classes my freshman year, like algebra. I knew every police officer at Forest. My yearbook back then was called Only Time Will Tell. 

My officer as a freshman was officer Robie Bonner. Officer Bonner is now a sergeant at Ocala Police Department. A lot of my friends that went to Elementary school with me graduated from Forest too. If you know any people that are freshman in High School call them Fresh Meat. I got good grades at Forest even though they called me Fresh Meat. 

One of my teachers at Forest when I was a freshman knew that I liked Michael Jordan because he had us do a paper on who we admired the most. He sent this paper to Michael Jordan after he graded it I picked Michael Jordan because I grew up liking Michael Jordan. My teacher told me that he knew a friend of Michael Jordan’s. He sent one of my Michael Jordan cards to the Washington Wizards when Michael was working there.  He also sent a letter to the friend. This is what he said about me:

“On Another Subject I’d like to ask a favor. In closed is a work sheet done by a 9^th grade student in one of my special education classes. Amanda is a sweet girl.  She is physically impaired from mild Cerebral Palsy and she is TMH (Trainable Mentally Handicapped). She is tall and for some reason she thinks that she is a good basketball player. You can see from her paper that she looks up to Michael Jordan. If you could get an autograph, picture …etc. she would be thrilled. I hope this is not an inconvenience and that you can find time to approach Michael about this.”

It took about a year for this teacher to get this letter back. He called me out of class one day to come there. In his classroom he told me to open up the letter and then something fell to the ground. He told me to pick it up it was the Michael Jordan card that was mine. He said turn it over to the front of the card. I looked at the front and the front said “To Amanda from Michael Jordan#23.”  I still have the card and the letter. 

I met a friend of mine named Daunte Culpepper on summer vacation at Wild Waters right before I became a sophomore. I know that most people never heard of him but he is from Ocala, Florida. That day I asked him if he would play volleyball but he said maybe later. I asked him if he would win me a basketball but instead he asked one of his friends or kids to give me their basketball he signed it and so did his cousin and a graduate from Vanguard because Daunte went to Vanguard. When I saw Daunte that day I was not just playing I was working by him to make sure that I would pick up the equipment. I was the equipment manager for parks and recreation. I even got him to autograph my work I.D.  

I was a sophomore in 2001 at Forest High School home of the Wildcats.  My police officer that year was Officer Bonner.  I washed the football players jerseys that year. I also started CBI that year which is known as Community Based Instruction. I also worked hard. I did a report on Martin Luther King Jr. for social studies. I also got to meet most of the football players. I went to one Football game that year which was Forest Versus Vanguard. My yearbook that year was called Impressions. 

When I started my junior year at Forest the first thing that got into the yearbook the most was September 11^th. My yearbook that year was called One In A Million. They also put a picture of me and my Officer and a friend that year. My Officer that year was named Joseph Peter Brown. Officer Brown just got promoted to Sergeant this year. Officer Brown was nice to me that year because he would buy me sodas when I never asked him too. 

I started a class called CBVT that year. CBVT is known as Community Based Vocational Training. Which is where you go with your teacher to a job site and work for an hour or two. My favorite place for working was Barnhills Restaurant because I like doing food preparation. Wherever they wanted me I would always help them. I also worked at Wal-Mart as a greeter.  On the days that I worked at Wal-Mart I liked Greeting because you would get to push carts to the people that needed them most and you got to ride in a electric wheelchair to the people. 

The summer that I became a Senior I went to Cincinnati and met Ken Griffey Jr.,  Jose Rijo, and Barry Larkin. When I shook Ken Griffey Jr.’s hand I felt the power go out of him and into me. My senior year was great except for when our custodian named Arnette Jackson died. Mr. Jackson was a good friend of mine. The cause of death was going over the motorcycle and being hit by a drunk driver.

Officer Brown was there for my last year. That was when I started doing Weightlifting, and Track and Field. In weightlifting I could bench press 75 pounds, and clean and jerk 65 pounds.  In track I did the 100-meter race and the shot put. I did CBVT for my last year as a Food Preparation worker at CDS. Which is known as Childhood Development Services.  I liked working there. I did the same things there as I did in Barnhills.

Graduation was on May 24^th and all my family was there.  Afterwards I went to Project Graduation which was fun.  I got to see my friends and my officer and say good-bye to them.  Now I am with Goodwill and they are helping me find a job.

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