Be More...

Here is my final Senior editorial, with an exclusive sentence not included in the print edition. See if you can figure out which one it is! Have a great summer, and life, Vikes!

To me, high school has been about how to function successfully in society. Oh, and something about isotopes, pigs that could talk, and some guy named Metternich. If high school doesn’t teach you about people, you’re damned. There is no hope for you. High school is unforgiving and dirty, like a bunch of cannibalistic apes put in a metal cage with huge, sharp spikes on the sides. You can pretty much sum high school up with the only quote, from a book that I had to read for school, that I remember: “Do it to Julia!” Enter your best friend’s name in place of “Julia,” if you wish.
The first two senior editorials I wrote for this last issue were cruelly rejected. I tried using a boring metaphor of a computer as my life and high school as a disposable software program. I then attempted to make a want ad for myself as a joke to go out on before I leave. Virtually everyone, with the exception of a few philanthropic souls, hated both, and demanded that I write something better and more enjoyable to the masses. I decided that writing about one or two moments from my high school career that summed up the essence of all three years would be satisfactory to the people around me. But all I could come up with was the past few days of rejection and writer’s block (not surprising to Mrs. Whitlock). It’s that, or maybe Melany Bruderer pulling the headphone out of my ear right now, just as I finally recognize a song from her Zune.
I tell you these things to reemphasize that the main thing I have learned from high school is that the world is cruel and finding self-worth is difficult. High school pulls no punches though and grinds that lesson into you with a jackhammer. Although your world will get better over time, it is largely due to your growing abilities to adapt to and accept what comes your way. So after all of this, I do have a conclusion, a brilliant insight that took me years to reach: high school is a bacterium, but it strengthens your immune system. Your time here is worth it. Make the best of it both in academic effort and frivolous shenanigans – just don’t do anything that may overly-affect your future negatively. The constant pain many feel during this time of their life challenges you and makes you better. It may seem like you’re being attacked, but really you’re just being made to be better, to be more – kind of like the relentless push by my peers and advisor to make me write a decent senior editorial.