by Lilah Boig ‘26

The biggest fault I have with the high school system is that the easiest way to succeed is to fit into the organizers provided. Often, class assignments have a word count, a time limit, or a 45-minute class period. It’s a common story amongst students that, regardless of the topic in class, it feels like there is no time or need to expand on anything, as you succeed by just “getting it done.” When I began high school, I put myself into those organizers, and I excelled in classes. Yet internally, my mental health deteriorated, and I felt my life was going toward a future of just going through the motions forever. As I venture into adulthood, it’s understandable that life has expectations on when stuff needs to get done and how. Yet over the past four years, I’ve increasingly seen a world filled with injustice and tragedy, but the reasons for it were far more complicated than what we had time to process in class, if it came up at all.

Staying up to date on events, I became enamored by the advanced editorials and found that the deepest and most realistic nuances of our world could be explored through the journalistic writing that I did for The Warrior newspaper. I was inspired to have an outlet through writing articles about what was on my mind, and also wanted to share with others. It gave me the belief that I could make a difference. That mix of passion to speak out and desire to write brought me into the world of journalism, and by joining The Warrior, I was able to learn about and write about reality, painful and disgusting and depressing reality, but it was real. 

The more involved I got, the more I found my deep passions in life, and here I realized that I wanted to dedicate myself to fighting for immigrant rights and improving relations between the Americas. Understanding the reasons for immigration and stories of deportees is nothing short of heartbreaking for me and incredibly complicated, but this is what I realized I had needed in my life. Something to ignite me to never stop learning, to never stop trying to understand deeper, and look past what fits into the organizer. The nuances of life are what really matter and give life its beauty, regardless of the subject. Pushing oneself to fully embrace what life has to offer, painful or not, is how you can discover who you are and what you truly stand for.