Jessica’s Jumbles: A meaning to it all
June 14, 2015
When I was thinking about how to write this editorial, I tried to remember specific points in my high school career; things that stood out and memories about this school that I don’t want to forget. I can tell you the exact outfit that I wore on my first day of freshman year-a plain black shirt with my red skinny jeans, if anyone wanted to know. I can tell you about joining the newspaper staff my sophomore year, which felt an awful lot like joining a new family. I can even tell you about sinking in the school pool after my physics boat project promptly failed my junior year in Mrs. Akers’ class. There are a million more things about my senior year that I could tell you about in great detail: homecoming, prom, getting sixth place in UIL State for headlines. All of these memories make up my time spent at Creek.
But if I had to tell you just one thing I will remember the most about my experience here, it’s this: I remember walking in to my third period AP English class on the first day of junior year. Above the door, Mr. Fontenot had taken down his usual “Abandon all hope, ye who enters here” poster, an Inferno reference that I personally found hilarious, and instead replaced it with just seven words: “You matter. What you do here matters.”
This caught my attention and I really haven’t been able to let go of it since. In the midst of procrastinated homework and late-night essays, it is easy to forget the importance of the work we do here. That although the grades and the busy-work assignments will soon be forgotten, the life skills, the study habits, the information learned and the friends and memories made will not. It matters, and it is important to not waste that precious time.
If there is only one thing you take from reading my editorials from the past year, that’s what I hope you understand. Your time here is short. It might seem like forever when you’re going day to day, but the four years that you roam these hallways will fly by before you even realize it. Trust me, I’m walking across the big stage in about two days and sometimes I still wonder what happened to freshman year. But in this
short amount of time, you get to decide what you do and who you become out of it. It’s your time to put in the hard work, meet some amazing people and learn more things about the world then you have ever known. Because what you do here, in these halls and classrooms and courts, matters. These are times that, like it or not, are going to stay with you for the rest of your life. They might not be the best four years of your life, but they are going to be important in deciding what kind of person you want to be. High school can sometimes suck and I will be the first to admit that. Sometimes there are just too many assignments and too little time to complete them. Sometimes there are teacher that you just don’t click with and classes that you don’t know how to do well in. Remember that it is okay to put yourself first when you need to. You matter. You matter enough to sacrifice one grade if it means keeping your head above the water. But when challenges arise and opportunities present themselves, don’t be afraid to stand up to them. Give high school your all because when you finish, you should be proud to look back at the person you were. You should be amazed at what you’ve accomplished. I am proud of myself. I hope that my fellow graduating seniors are too. So, to wrap everything up, remember to have fun but work hard. Experience new things but don’t lose who you are. Respect yourself, and everyone around you. And remember this: Everyday is a choice and you get to choose what happens. You decide. Because guess what: You matter. And what you do it here, that matters too.
