Las Vegas Newspapers in Education

Students Speak Out

The Las Vegas-Review Journal Editorial Essay Program for High School Students

May Topic:
"If you could change one thing about high school what would it be"

FIRST PLACE WINNER
Paige Michaud, Cimarron-Memorial High School

Changing High School

How many times have you heard the saying, "High school is the best years of your life?" If you were to survey students in current day, the majority might agree, but only with the exception of just a few things.

My personal experience in high school has been one to remember. It had its ups and downs, but for the most part it's been a good ride. However, if I were to change one thing about high schools, as a whole, I'd change the people I chose to hang around with.

Cimarron-Memorial is great, they provide you with caring teachers who want each of their students to succeed, you're given a multitude of classes to partake in, and once you've entered this "high school realm," you're able to socialize with anyone you desire. Unfortunately, you'll later learn this will be at your own expense.

Through the three long years I've attended Cimarron-Memorial, I've learned that high school is really what you make it out to be. The activities you participate in, the grades you earn and the people you become friends with will determine who you'll be as an adult. Growing up, my dad always told me, "If you want to be a winner, and then stick with the winners." Thinking back, it's possibly the best advice ever given to me, I only wish I realized that during my freshman year.

Upon entering high school, everyone is searching for themselves. So, they cling onto people who they can see they have things in common with. I met a friend and her and I became very close. She liked the same music as I did, we both got good grades, so the evidence showed I was sticking with a winner. But she became friends with a group of kids that introduced her to things that would only bring her down. Because we were friends, and I was like a lost puppy in the halls of this new school, I faded into the same group and watched as my freshman year spiraled to the ground.

There are three main things to keep in mind while choosing friends in high school. One of the most important to remember is that as much as we'd like to think, teachers are not oblivious to the activities we take on outside of school. Because teachers can't have personal relationships with each of their pupils, they have to make judgments on how we apply ourselves, our grades, and the peers they see us walking the halls with. If they have a good idea that these peers are up to no good, there's a possibility we're guilty by association.

Rule number 2: If your friends don't care that you're failing in any class required or not, they are not true friends, point blank. The education you obtain in high school sets standards for your future. A true friend, you would think, would want you to go far. They'd want you to have gratifying opportunities in life, they'd want to cheer you on. If you had a failing grade, a "winner" kind of friend, as my dad would put it, would definitely care.

Last but not least, if the group you're hanging around with is too preoccupied instigating drama, finding their next high, or planning the next day to play hooky, they're not in it to win it. Like I stated before, high school is what you make of it. It holds all the tools to benefit your future, but it's your choice to grasp onto them. If your "friends" aren't doing so, you might follow in their example and miss out on thousands of opportunities to boost yourself up academically.

If I could change one thing about my high school experience, it would be to choose my friends wisely. I'd pick to hang out with people who have the same goals and aspirations as I do. I'd pick to be friends with the "winners" and make very day of high school count towards a blossoming future.

RUNNER-UP
Michelle Fillmore, Cimarron-Memorial High School

If I could change one thing about high school, what would it be?

At exactly 7 o clock a.m., the bell tolls to bring in the start of class. Jenny Lou sits in the front with her friends, chatting up the sick party this Friday, their voices carrying over to the very back wall of the very crammed room. A girl walking in just moments before prays silently to not be noticed. Her hair hands like a curtain over her face. She sweeps by, Jenny looks up, and then away, her nose wrinkled. As the girl slumps into her seat next to the boy with heavy acne in the back of the room, mocking laughter pricks her ears and sinks like a needle into her chest, as Jenny Lou is unaware of how loud she really is. Pointed, judgmental glances aim her way. The teacher clears his throat, bored, and calls the rowdy class room to order. This is a typical Thursday morning.

While your story may not have been the same as that girl in Am. Lit. class, we have all felt uncool from time to time at high school. What we didn't see from that girl's eyes that morning is that Jenny Lou was determined to be noticed by Kevin, her crush, who wears jeans that cling to his lower hips, and a black hoodie he saw a celebrity wear in some magazine. Jenny Lou is also afraid her friend, Rachel, would ditch her if she didn't go to that party. She has a reputation to uphold. I mention this not to excuse her behavior, but to open you to the knowledge that she to feels trapped by the need to be accepted by her peers.

With the media shoving fashion and sex down our throats, we're brainwashed into believing that if you don't act like everyone else, you will never be accepted. Why? And once you've found a group that accepts you, you end up ridiculing the ones who don't fit in, to make yourself look more popular. It's subtle sometimes. And people ignore it, or think of it as something different from what it really is. I'm just trying to fit in. My friends ARE nice, that group is just weird. My group doesn't follow cliques; we're completely separated from everyone else. What should change is high school kids' terror of just being themselves, to just realize that it's not the end of the world if someone else doesn't accept you; they've got their own insecurities just like everyone lese. And in turn, don't put another person down, and stand up to the ones that do. It's subtle sometimes. Kindness goes a long way.

What will I remember when I think back to high school? It's not going to be the ridiculous things we wore, or how cool people may have thought I was that I will care about. In the long run, what will matter most is the time you had, and how you spent it. It's about the real, genuine, honest to god friends that you were gifted with, and how good a friend you were in return. Ultimately, it's the choices you make that effect who you grow up to be. If you choose to conform to the peer pressure now, how on earth do you expect to stand up for what's right later, in the real world?