John F. Kennedy: A Biography Every person in the world has strived to be remembered as an important character in other people’s lives. Whether that person knew it or not, they had an impact on others. Some people try to model their behavior off of a specific person that has impacted the world greatly. For many people, that idol is America’s 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His ability to lead and his determination make him a perfect example of what every person should strive to be. Even though his life was cut short by the hand of an assassin, he lived a life of significance to the United States and to the world. On May 29, 1917 a blue eyed baby that many people would get to know as “Jack”, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was born into a wealthy Irish Catholic family and was the second child of nine. He was named after his mother Rose’s father, John Francis Fitzgerald, the former mayor of Boston. As a young child, Kennedy was often sick and in and out of the hospital. He overcame ailments such as measles, chicken pox and even the highly contagious and deadly scarlet fever (JFKLIB). For eighth grade, he attended a Catholic boarding school in Connecticut called Canterbury. Here he was known as a poor student in some classes. He was good at English (he enjoyed reading) and Math, but his grade in Latin was below passing. Here at Canterbury, young Kennedy was constantly sick as well and was not gaining any weight. The headmaster of Canterbury took action and put him on a diet consisting of more milk, fats, and vitamins. Along with this diet, he was told to rest for 45 minutes everyday in the evening. Then one day in April of 1931, he suffered an appendicitis attack and had an appendectomy. He was withdrawn from school and never returned, but the school still gave him a full year’s credit. For high school, Jack switched schools, under his parent’s decision, and attended Choate, where his older brother attended (O’Brien).
A prestigious and selective school, Choate is located in Connecticut also. Here, Kennedy struggled with multiple classes, foreign languages being the worst. At the end of his freshman year, the French teacher reported that he had attempted almost everything to try to improve his grades but could not succeed. His papers were awfully written, and he was often unprepared for class. He had to attend summer school for his worst classes. This turned out to be a great decision because his sophomore year turned out to be his best in high school. The next year he met perhaps his best friend in Lemoyne Billings. They roomed together for the remainder of their time at Choate. The two were practical jokers and were quite immature their junior year. Their senior year, Kennedy and Billings nearly got expelled due to a joke their club was going to do. The headmaster was persuaded to not expel Kennedy and he went on to have a successful senior year. He took the Harvard entrance exam and received an 85 on both the history and English portions, honors grades for both (O’Brien). He would enroll at Princeton to avoid competing with his older brother at Harvard, but illness once again took control of his life, and he was forced to drop out. The next year he decided to go to Harvard with his brother (Brauer).
His years at Harvard were well spent both academically and socially. Upon entering Harvard he said that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 35 (JFKLIB). He had his goal and was determined to achieve it, though his grades might not show it. Once again, Kennedy was just an average student, only doing well in the courses he chose to do well in. He was constantly distracted from his grades by sports and women (Bio.com). He was a football player at Harvard and suffered a ruptured disk in his back while playing. This injury was the beginning of a lifetime of pain in the spine for the ill and feeble Kennedy (JFKLIB). Along with playing sports, he was a ladies man and a very popular throughout the