Being Unique is being able to be outside of the box and different. Although after years of making a yearbook for a new senior class, how unique can a yearbook get before ideas begin to be repeated and washed out and away. I sat down and interviewed the art teacher at lynnfield high school and asked her on how she plans to create and new and fun yearbook for the graduating class of 2018. When I sat down with Mrs. Johnson she was able to tell me how bring in students and letting them take over and do what they think is best and being the main overseer of things was the best way for the yearbook to be unique. “Its the students who make the yearbook unique not me, its their ideas and the way they interact with one another than makes something different
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” This mantra from Margaret Mead is a somewhat humorous yet slightly satirical spin on how people tend to think of themselves as one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable human specimens. However, one English teacher from Wellesley High School takes this critique one step further with his polemic presentation at the school commencement. David McCullough, a Massachusetts English teacher, gave a seemingly somber sendoff to his graduates in 2012, with a speech that contained some unapologetically harsh sentiments. However, by looking past the outwardly dismal surface of the speech, the students can infer a more optimistic message. By incorporating devices of asyndeton, paradox, antimetabole, and anadiplosis, McCullough conveys to each student that even though none of them is unique, their commonality is not a fault they all have merit and should strive to view the world through a more selfless lens.
While most students have an interest in sports or academics, my interest lies within a different category; yearbook. Being on the River Bluff High School yearbook staff has become such an dominant and meaningful part to my life that I would feel incomplete if I did not share my story.
Yearbook records the history of the school year. Its shows interesting and fun things students have done throughout the school year. Yearbook shows all the talented kids on the sports teams, Chorus, Band, Avid, Spanish, Art, and Technology. People outside
Rather it represented my efforts. Tackling an unideal situation head-on and using the distress it caused me as motivation are the trademarks of a growth mindset. People who have a growth mindset, in comparison to those with a fixed mindset, tend to have a better idea of who they are because they recognize their strengths and weaknesses (Dweck 11). Taking into account of their weaknesses is only part of the picture. Actively seeking to improve upon their faults, is what truly differentiates someone who believes that traits can be cultivated or are already carved in stone. Pushing past my failures produced success. That being said, how did I end freshman year fearlessly taking on new challenges to graduating high school as a content, unimproved writer?
All through life people strive to become someone with a specific identity; to be classified as a “somebody” rather than a “nobody”. This classification is most noted amongst high school students. Often youth identities are developed through the activities they participate in, the jock, the cheerleader, the nerd, the band geek. Yet, people are not the activities they participated in in high school. People graduate, go to college, work toward a career, have children. Then at the ten year reunion, those same high school jocks, cheerleaders, nerds, and band geeks gather once again to reminisce over the past. These people are no longer the high school activities of the past nor are these people the activities they participate in currently, their identities now, at this reunion, are judged by something different. The peers at the reunion do not look the same, but such qualitative identity is not important; a person does not have to look specifically the same to be the same person. Yet, how do peers judge a person’s identity, know James is still the same James and has survived time, besides the name tag they wear? Arguably, the most sufficient response to this question of personal identity is the use of the body criterion.
Ever wonder what happens if everything changes in a blink of an eye? On June 3rd, 2016, I graduated secondary school. That night in my middle school gymnasium, the administrators had organized a celebratory party in the graduate’s honors. I remembered dancing the night away with the people I held so dear to my heart for nine years. The strobe lights shining and music blaring while we were staring at each other with content. We parted ways at the end of that cheerful night. We were sad to say goodbye, yet we didn’t know that some us were saying goodbye to each other for ever to go lead different lives apart from each other. At the time, I knew that moment will always be a highlight of my life but later I came to know that it was also a catalyst for change. Although freshman year and half of sophomore year brung hardships that have come and go, the experiences have changed me for the better throughout the year and a half.
Once there was a girl who is no different than you that was struggling with something inside her. This evil force is called depression. Depression is an illness runs in her family, which made it easier for her to develop it. At school it was like she was someone else. Suicide was a concern of her family. School was the most exceedingly terrible bad dream, not by virtue of she could not have cared less for it, but rather it was the people that encompassed her. At school one day all of this changed, because of her angel Mrs. Ogle. That girl was me.
I never imagined myself finishing high school through an online course. I always imagined walking across the stage of the school auditorium. Daydreams of wearing the traditional cap, gown, and tassel, and being handed my diploma by my high school supervising principal, Mr. Bryant, was how I had planned to say "goodbye" to South Jones High School. Yet, the harder I clung to those visions and hopes, the more impossible they became. The name calling, glares, whispers, and rumors were more than I could bear. Just when I was about to give up on graduating, my mother had a wonderful idea- homeschool.
Being apart of yearbook could help me grow as a person while having fun. I hope to improve my organization, team skills, as well as improving my writing. Yearbook involves all the
Last year at the beginning of the school year I was just starting high school as a freshman at St.T. I was excited about starting there because I had the chance to meet some new people and teachers. Most of the students I had already went to school with from kindergarten to when we graduated eighth grade together, and I went to school with a lot of the upperclassmen in previous years at Our Lady of Lourdes so, I wasn’t scared because I knew so many people already. Anyway, the first semester was fine. I as on the cheer team, I had good grades, and kept them up, and i was gone almost every weekend hanging out with friends. Then the second semester comes. I wasn’t going to cheer practices, my grades dropped, and I missed so many weeks of school
Class of 2012, as we sit here this evening, I would like you to take a look at the classmates sitting around you. Many students have given countless hours of time, energy, and passion to worthy cuases that they have been a part of throughout high school. However, those aren't the only students deserving of recognition this evening. We have students here tonight, who have taken a stand for what they believe in, not even hesitating to compromise their reputations.
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.
Through these fun and challenging times each one of us has built strong relationships. Whether it was with friends or a teacher, we have developed connections and memories that will be with us forever, even if we lose contact with those individuals. Some students have discovered they have a passion for writing through a creative writing class or want to have a career in business from taking Mr. Ide’s inspirational marketing classes. Others have participated in CLIP or summer school to catch up and make it possible for them to be here today. I went to Heights Elementary and have spent the last 12 years with the same group of people. Attending school with the people I’ve known since elementary and middle school, and making homecoming posters with them for four years in a row, has given me a chance to get to know the people around me better than I ever thought I would.
In 2017 I see myself graduating 8th grade a entering 9th.Then, All of my hard work is going to be paid off and I'm finally going into high school. I want all of the teachers and students to remember me as the hard working student that has never failed to succeed. A legacy is a way you want to be remembered. Some people will succeed and some will fail. The legacy you will leave you will either make people praise you or not like you. Going into 9th grade I want to leave a remarkable legacy.
Thirteen years ago, we met for the first time. Along the way, some additions and some subtractions were made throughout; leaving us with the group you see before you. Throughout our high school journey, as a very dysfunctional family, many good and some not so good memories were made that shaped us into the people we are today. Most classes grow up together, uniting as a group; or a family. It would be a lie to say this also happened with our class, as we are all so different. Our class holds so much diversity, it makes sense why we don’t seem to mesh together smoothly. But that is what makes us unique. Like the pieces of a puzzle. Each piece in a puzzle is different. Not every piece fits together, but they all have their own place in the big picture. That is what symbolizes our class. A puzzle. We are all so unique, and diverse, but all together we all come to form the big picture.