Endylion Strohman: Senior Column

Endylion+Strohman%3A+Senior+Column

Endylion Strohman, Reporter

There’s no set direction you need to take to go through high school. The hardest thing when you are starting out is hearing all these people throwing ideas at you about what you  should do and who you should strive to be. I’m telling you now, don’t listen to any of them. (I understand that in turn, that would mean not listening to me… but you should listen to me:D) I most definitely do not have everything figured out, I just want to share a few things that I’ve reflected on in my last couple years at Ames High that helped me grow in a lot of ways.

Whether or not I had 1 friend or 5 friends, if I gave them my friendship completely, I felt a lot more. Sometimes that meant I had a lot more to lose, and sometimes I did. But overall, the moments I look back to and feel most deeply towards in my four years are the personal moments that I spent with people I cherished and I was truly happy. The feeling of giving your loyalty to someone you care about exceeds any superficial friendship.

There are going to be so many people you meet who seem to have an agenda that is based solely on creating an image of themselves that isn’t authentic. Only do certain things if you have an intrinsic motivation driving you to do it. If you are open to trying new things like SHEPH or DECA, then definitely try it. If not, you do not have to be involved in it to look a certain way or impress certain people. If you think that you will benefit in a positive way, learn something, or grow from something you do, then that is when you will become a better version of yourself.  

Make lists. In general just make lists. If I was stressed out about things I had to pay for, or assignments I had to do I would just make lists of what my responsibilities were to clear my mind. And every once in awhile I make lists of the top things I do in my life that make me the happiest.. And then I DO them. If you need a break and love to spend a night in your room relaxing and reading, go home and do it. If you like spending time with your friends and grilling and being outside, text all your friends and get them together. Take action in your life. Times when I chose to do something with my time that I hadn’t planned, it made me feel so much more alive. Choose to make your time worthwhile, and it will be.

You can say you’re going to plan things and you can say you’re going to decide what happens in your life. It’s fine to plan, but almost every time, things will not work out the way you expected. And honestly, it’s better that way. You cannot plan out your life. Life is going to happen to you. The only thing you can ever control is your attitude. I’ve always thought this because of a quote my mom hung up in our kitchen when I was little. It says, “Your biggest obstacle to being happy is your insistence that life be different than what it is. Life isn’t designed to accommodate us.”  When you stop saying “why me” about anything that happens to you, and start understanding that things are going to happen whether you plan it or not, and you recognize that it’s your choice whether or not you want to receive pity for it, or overcome it, then you will become a lot more humble and grateful for other things in your life.

I think the moment things changed for me is when I realized that I am not the only one at this school. When you let go of the idea that you’re the only person that matters, life becomes a lot more enjoyable.

 

Overall, I think you should follow your gut and do what you feel is right. No matter what you do, at the end there is going to be a change that you underwent. I don’t remember the person I was the first day of freshman year or even the things I thought about. That, to me, is the whole point of high school. That you are changed at the end of it. And hopefully that change was for the better. The point is that you should allow yourself to let that change take place in you. And from what you learned after four years, you can use to take on life. And you can come back at life with the strength and knowledge that you’ve previously acquired. So put yourself out there. I have a lot to accomplish and learn, but I became someone that I wanted to be and I endured a lot of things to get there. High school prepared me in endless ways for my life, and I hope it does the same for you, and I hope you let it.