I’ve never really had a specific academic interest at school. I enjoyed all my subjects for the most part but I never found my calling. My sophomore year I joined a linked media class, which SB teaches. It combined mixed media into my regular English for that year. I enjoyed that class and at the end of the year SB suggested that I join the newspaper the following year. Alongside that and some pressure from my dear friend Jackson Mailey, I forecasted and got accepted into the staff. Whether it was in that linked class, the newspaper class, or editorial leadership, it would be hard for me to name a stronger community built anywhere else.
Every day, whether it is A or B, I end the day sitting in SB’s room. On A days it is newspaper and on B days it is editorial leadership. It feels relieving to make it to that last period of the day. I can’t remember a day that I couldn’t share a laugh with anyone who I sat with in that class.
Although I have shared so many memories at McDaniel with so many people, I am ready to move on. It is not that I disliked any part of being at school, but I feel so secure with the memories and connections I have built. I feel as if when I leave the school I will not be leaving all of those feelings behind, but they are a part of me wherever I go. I suppose I will be more sad when the time comes to depart, but for now I can enjoy what I have. I believe that all those relationships I’ve built will stay strong, even as I am physically not in the same space. Every memory I’ve made will make me smile when I think of it, rather than make me sad they are over. At least I hope I have faith in myself to cherish those memories as they are, rather than to miss them.
Each year of high school got progressively better and better. I feel as if I found myself more and more as time went on. Although that is often the case I feel as if it is not appreciated enough. I want to thank my friends as well as my teachers for keeping me honest and helping me find my own sense of self. At the start of this year I felt as if everyone, all of my friends and peers were drifting away. I wasn’t as tightly knit with some of the people I was last year and it was beginning to hurt. As time went on I realized that I couldn’t stop that from happening. I wasn’t going to be able to share every single good moment with the same people I had before. Now I look back and realize that everyone else was also finding their sense of selves. Everyone was maturing and becoming different people than they once were. I have learned to accept that more and appreciate everyone for different reasons and enjoy different types of experiences with different people. I have become comfortable enough with my sense of self that as I drift apart from people, I don’t regret letting things go. I know that wherever I go next I will be able to connect with new people and build relationships just as strong as I have had in high school.
One of my favorite quotes is in the song ‘Beautiful boy’ by John Lennon. As it goes: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” I spent all of high school looking forward to what I would become, that it’s hard to appreciate the journey and the work it takes to get there. It’s hard to appreciate any experience, for good or bad, as you are so young and wishful. It is inevitable. The most you can do is try your hardest to cherish and stay in the moment, and if you do that, life passing you by won’t sting as hard as it could.
