Recently, my high school hosted a meeting in the gym with guest speaker Wade White. His powerful message left a resonating impact on me-- we are all measured by our character. What we do, what we say, and most importantly, how we make others feel.
With this in mind, I began contemplating how that applied to my experience in high school. I thought about my awkward, self- conscious freshman self and the people who helped build me into the young woman I am now. Everything leaves an impression, I realized, from the kind smiles the lunch ladies send my way every afternoon to the way a teacher conducts his or her class.
Marching band, for example, has been a major catalyst in my life. I have been in band since seventh grade, but it truly didn't become my home until freshman year. The upperclassmen were welcoming and kind, teaching me that making friends wasn't as hard as I had always thought. By being myself, not changing who I was to impress them no matter how much that idea lingered in my head, I made plenty of friends.
The One Act Play, which I joined my Junior year as a hopeful understudy, taught me to have confidence in myself. The directors, Mr. Dassigner through his jovial, outgoing personality, provided a perfect example for me about being comfortable expressing myself, no matter how silly I'm being. Ms. Dooley taught me how to open my mind for new possibilities for music and writing.
There are many more-- teachers who inspire a love of learning in their students or an interest in a certain topic-- that I could include but it all boils down to this: we all leave an impact. Mr. White told a gym full of students "You are the only person with your exact fingerprints in the world. You are the only person who gets to decide how you impact others in the amount of time you've got here."
As I stated earlier, people aren't going to remember you for what you wear. People won't remember you by what you say or do. They will remember how you made them feel, and my experiences at Aubrey High School have impacted my decision that I want to do my best to make people feel happy.
