PHOTO COURTESY/ Michelle Le
When I stepped beyond the rusted iron gates of TCHS on March 13, I didn’t anticipate it to be the last time I’d ever be on campus. Although life in quarantine can be drab, uninteresting and inconvenient, a step away from the busy world of late-stage capitalism allowed me to better reflect on my choices, my circumstances and the world at large.
Rampage
Being the feature editor gave me the opportunity to work with interesting, curious people and even teach a new generation of young journalist hopefuls. I was able to meet many new people (all of whom are more interesting than me) and learn about their unique hobbies and determination to succeed.
Though school newspapers are not known for their high readership, I think Rampage provides a valuable service to the campus at large. I’ve always felt that Rampage is mostly about introducing students to the complexities of journalism. Though few of our members will pursue journalism as a career, I think that it’s been a valuable experience for us, especially in an era of inaccurate reporting, mass disinformation and Fox News.
Academics
Throughout my time as a high school student, I’ve taken many courses, some more vigorous than others. While some classes required lots of studying and work, others could be completed with less…exertion.
Like most other students, I didn’t have any noble goals when I chose to take advanced courses. I didn’t wish to learn about the nuances of American history, or discover the fascinating world of high-level chemistry. What I really wanted was for my supposed academic ability to be reflected in my college applications.
Looking back, however, I learned many important things from my AP classes. Skills such as time management and peer cooperation will be invaluable to me in the future. And while I may never use what I learned in AP World History in my career, I always found the material to be intriguing.
The Road to College
College applications were a large part of my junior and senior years, and they brought on some of the most frustrating moments in my entire life.
Any American high school student that wants to go into higher education must be subjected to the machinations of CollegeBoard, a company that, through some legal miracle, was classified as a non-profit organization despite the comically high salaries of its executives. Its PSAT, SAT and AP programs are used by colleges all over the country. As a result, millions of students are forced to pay ridiculous prices to fill in circles on a piece of paper. Alternative programs, such as the ACT and IB, are similarly expensive, in the most effective display of price fixing since the pharmaceutical industry.
Of course, nothing was more inspiring than watching students, teachers and parents levy intense criticisms against CollegeBoard’s glitch-filled online AP testing system. In the future, I hope we will continue to demand more for our education.
A Changed Senior Year
The end of 12th grade marks a period of great change for high school students. During this period of intense inner turmoil, where graduating seniors are forced to make many difficult decisions, small spectacles such as prom or graduation can provide closure to 13 years of public education.
However, the Class of 2020 won’t be able to enjoy any of these celebrations. We won’t be able to buy overpriced prom tickets. We won’t be able to parade our college admission results to the entire school during the Renaissance Assembly. We won’t be able to sit in the hot sun for three hours, listening to commencement speakers and their lengthy, saccharine speeches.
As fun as it would be to get dressed in a colorful shower curtain and accept a participation award in front of hundreds of people, the loss of our celebrations isn’t completely terrible. We can regularly talk to our friends on social media, and, unlike in real life, we can ignore the people we don’t respect. Being stuck at home also gives us the opportunity to spend time with our families—something that a student with multiple extracurriculars and AP classes rarely ever does.
Endings
Though our place in the world has changed, the world itself hasn’t. As we embark into the future, we must prepare for anything—good or bad-—that fate will throw at us.
Sometimes, we will achieve what we strived to do. The sensation of joy and triumph can fuel us. Yet, like all emotions, the feeling of victory will one day fade, and more challenges will find their way into our lives.
Other times, we will fail. Our immeasurable disappointment will prevent us from challenging ourselves for days, weeks or even months. However, failure is often the greatest teacher, and we’ll be able to rise to the occasion once more, wiser than before.
And sometimes, there will be no resolution to what we set out to do. Things will end abruptly.