Envisage

As I grow older, I crave wanting to go out and explore the world more and more. I can’t wait for the day when I can sit down in a random bar in a random country and just chat with a random person. While I do my school work I often listen to podcasts to make the time I spend doing the work more enjoyable at the moment my favorite podcast to listen to is trash taste; they usually just talk about random dumb stuff; but every now and again they go on tangents about their life growing up in another country, traveling and living in different countries, I always found it interesting.  I often compare their school life with mine, being intrigued by the similarities and the differences, hearing the stories of their school life always made me think of when something like that happened to me and their stories helped unlock memories I would have otherwise forgotten. As I think of all my stories and stories I’ve heard not from just podcasts but stories I’ve heard from my families and friends I learn that stories from school rarely had someone learn something from a lesson a teacher that shaped them in the long run in there it usually them having a moment in their school whether it be happy or sad. In the 12 or so years we spend in school we take away not the lessons created by the school board and teachers but the random lessons we get from when we reflect on our special moments in school when we tell our stories.

From these experiences, we can learn to make better choices when it comes to getting along with others and it’s just good to remember happy moments in general especially if we are not in a good mood. I remember in my senior year of high school one of the teachers was moving to another school because it was a better opportunity and we were all happy for him, that day we had a fire drill so my grade decide to give him one final farewell and it was one of the most heartwarming things I can remember from the time I spent at that school and now I can take that memory with me for the rest of my life. These memories are one of the main things that shape me without them. I can’t imagine what kind of person I would be without them. In the beginning of my freshmen year, I aimed to transfer but I ended up not doing it because of all the friends I made and I’m happy I didn’t.

I remember one day in middle school, that day everyone had to leave the building and to this day I’m not entirely sure why we had to, other than apparently there was an intruder. But all of my teachers were calm and they even let my class who had gym at the time, go up and get our jackets. Even though it was probably a situation where everyone should be on edge; I don’t remember anyone being scared. I remember being in a circle one cold early afternoon in February and talking to my friends to pass the time. I remember being huddled in a circle to try to keep warm and every now and then one of us jumped in a place like a penguin because that is what one of our teachers told us every time we complained that we were cold she’d say “jump up and down, it a good way to stay warm, it’s what penguins do” and jump up in down in place in a demonstration. We were outside for a long while but it wasn’t a bad time at all in fact I cherish that memory.

Looking back at that moment made me realize that as important as getting an education is, I feel like making friends is just as important if not greater. As I went through the grades I never woke up at 6 am excited to go learn about Aristotle the legendary greek philosopher I when excited to talk about Dc vs marvel with my friends. When I think of all the most significant moments in school I had, me and my friends I made in school were a core part of it whether it be shenanigans in class that got us sent to the principal office or us competing with our grades of who can do the best in the next quiz. As Aristotle said, “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual.”. When I learned this quote I completely brushed it under the carpet in my mind but going over that moment in February made me realize how important socializing really is.

I can’t tell you exactly why but having friends to create memories with is one of the best things about life. I wholeheartedly feel that even if I didn’t have the highest GPA in my school or I didn’t have any crazy achievements in my school, I still feel like I succeeded all the same because I was able to truly enjoy my time at school. The valedictorian of my school made a bunch of sacrifices in order to achieve his goal. He never did talk to anyone if it didn’t involve school work and he never seemed to have a life outside of school as much as I respected him, I do not want to have to go through school like that. I don’t like the idea that the only way to succeed in school is to sacrifice your social life; it’s definitely possible to do both. Maybe I’m wrong or biased towards the social aspect of school way more than I am toward the learning aspect. But I feel like the best way to do school is to balance the social part and the learning part perfectly.