by Solaiman K. Hassanin ’23

The day is a convenient experience for any comparison we want to make. It starts, moves through its stages dragging us and our farcical pride with it, and then it ends at midnight just as it promised it would. And high school, for all its glamor, pain, and congruent silliness, is still just a day.

Just as we plan for a day and have ideas on pursuing different objectives in our time awake, we also plan for high school. People either scheme again and again in their heads about what they will do and what they will experience, or they bury themselves with sorrow over what they will not be, what they will not see. Yet, as time progresses, they find themselves carried by the tides of change, moved by what they could not have schemed for or imagined, and they often find themselves unable to change with the tide or stand in spite of it. Instead, they are left being carried until the long day ends and they get tossed into the next journey.

You need to believe in yourself and understand that if you keep pushing things back and reinforcing bad habits they will never go away. You have to take the initiative and engage in uncomfortable situations, while also putting the responsibility on yourself to recline and relax alone. Enjoy the silence as much as the noise, and respect the falling peace of raindrops sprinkling from above as much as you respect the burning rising sun. Growth is not just a new experience or a new way of living; growth is about taking a stand and refusing to be moved on anyone else’s terms. If midnight is to hit you softly, you have to stay upright and believe that your growth is not out of your hands.