By Faith Collins co EIC

As much as it pains me to admit, high school was useful in more than a few ways. These four years have helped me accept change as it pops up out of nowhere and ruins every plan I ever had for the future. They definitely taught me something about surprises and unprecedented challenges that occur out of the blue, or so it seems. It’s fitting that the class of 2020 would get this type of goodbye. In my opinion, it almost confirms the theory that we’re all living in a simulation, but that’s beside the point. The point is; change can come in all sorts of ways at any time in our lives, most often when we least expect it. What matters is how we adapt and adjust our mindset so that all change can be a positive change and not something that holds us back. Although this isn’t what anyone pictured their senior year to look like, it brought so many more blessings than misfortunes. It just takes a change of perspective for them to be revealed to us.

I joined the newspaper in my sophomore year with the intention of pursuing a career in journalism. The news channel interests me and I love to write, so I figured it was the best option for me. In elementary school, it seemed like all my classmates wanted to be doctors, nurses, lawyers, cops, firefighters, or other prestigious and highly respected careers. I thought I was the only second grader who wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Were my dreams too small, or was I just lazy? Was I not ambitious enough? I knew artists don’t exactly receive lucrative pay-checks, and unless they’re particularly successful they’re definitely not as respected as other careers out there. But it was something I could see myself doing in an apartment somewhere surrounded by plants and succulents looking over a skyline ten years in the future. I imagined myself stress-free and happy, wondering what my next project would be. Obviously this was before I could comprehend the concept of money and my dreams have changed since then, but I still don’t care much for science and that will never change. 

Even though high school sparked my anxiety over the future, it also made me realize that I wasn’t the only one who had no clue what will happen after graduation. I still know people who are going into college with an undecided major, which is a lot more common than I thought. There was no reason to be so worried about where I would end up because most of my classmates were in the same position. Luckily, through an organization called Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) which allowed me to become one of the leaders for all four years, I created social media posts with fun designs and bold fonts to announce our next events. It was simple and easy, but it introduced me to the possibility of a future in graphic design because it was so much fun for me. Getting to create the flyers and announcements while also working on newspaper design was an incredible opportunity I’ll always be thankful for. 

I struggled to work up the motivation to write this article because everything seemed so pointless. The class of 2020 didn’t get to make as many memories as other senior classes because we thought we had more time. I knew I would eventually have to write this goodbye, but I wasn’t prepared to have nothing to write about. I wanted to be able to spread hope and positivity to everyone surviving this pandemic, but I couldn’t do that if I didn’t have any of my own. So eventually I came to the realization that if you look at a close-up of a walnut, it will look like a brain, or even the eye of a fly. But if you zoom out, you see that it was really just a walnut in the first place. Perspective is everything, so do what it takes to see the bigger picture in everything. There will always be new beginnings, so don’t accept 2020 as a year of failure, but as a year of personal growth and necessary change.