Sometimes, It’s Hard to Walk Away

indexWriting is built on relationships. Writing is composed, constructed, resurrected, and thrown together with a relationship in mind. In literature, readers -myself included- are quick to judge the characters without in depth analysis or benefit of the doubt to the situation unfolding. As readers you place your struggles and the concepts of your own personal relationships into the text, sometimes letting it overshadow the new way of thinking the writer wants you to experience.

For example, last year, I read the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. This book is sewn together with beautiful language as it follows the life of Janie, a mixed race woman in the early 1900s. Though I connected to the strength and determination the main character had the entire time in the book, I couldn’t understand why she stayed married to a man who abused her. Even after reading this book, I weighed the argument that Janie had a nice life married to a pastor but was muted into submission by him. I didn’t understand why she didn’t just pack her stuff and leave. As a senior in high school I have already begun to mentally pack my bags for college and have grown to understand Janie. I’ve learned that even when the front door is open it’s hard to leave the people and the place you’ve called home for so long, that there is a relationship you have to even the drippy faucet you’ll only notice when you’re gone.

As the year progresses I take the idea on relationships Hurston gave her character Janie and now look for it in other stories. Relationships run deep. They don’t need to be subjected to a list of archetypical characters. In the long run, they are really hard to walk away from.

-Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor

Senior Year

r-HIGH-SCHOOL-COLLEGE-COSTS-large570Being a senior, it’s often hard to think of the last time something was not beginning. A new test, a college application, a new email, etc. But I have recently been trying to teach myself that beginnings are not always troublesome; they happen for a reason. I was recently accepted to the college of my choice. I was attempting to create a password for my new account with them. I had so much trouble with it that I had to call the help desk. I was so entirely frustrated and ready to give up, but the girl on the other line was kind enough to set my password for me. It was a two minute phone call. So, you are asking why I am telling you this? Because it took me that long to figure out how lucky I am to be able to go to college. There I was, sitting on my nice couch, in my warm home, complaining to no end about something out of my control. I had to stop and think about my life this year. Have you ever counted how many times a day you complain about anything at all? For me, the number would be astronomical. I have decided to do more with my days as a senior than complain constantly about trivial things. I will complain about math tests for sure (that cannot be avoided), but I will try to focus on all of the beginnings that my senior year has brought to me. I can’t wait to graduate and start the next part of my education, but for now, I want to take each day as it comes. I want to focus on the opportunities that I receive and I want to learn to be more thankful for what I learn from this year.

-Sarah Buckman, Editor-in-Chief 

New Beginnings

IMG_0891This year, being a senior the phrase “New Beginnings” brings a certain series of images to my mind. That is, moving boxes and masking tape, college acceptance letters, graduation, moving out, and moving on. All the talk of universities, plans for apartments, and big cities makes me break out in hives internally and makes me think a little less of myself because I don’t know if I want any of that.

While I see all of my friends buying cute towels for their dorms and anxiously going to the mailbox every day I always ask myself if I am doing the right thing. Is it ok that I don’t have a desire to move away? Or go to a university just nearly four months after I’ve graduated? Is it normal that I am very much content living at home and going to community college for the first two years? I ask myself these questions almost once a day and sometimes those questions feel like they eat me alive. And when anyone asks me where I am going to school next year is it ok that I’m almost ashamed to say? These questions are ones that I only know the answer to. And there is no right or wrong ones. And I have learned that over the last few weeks.

I have learned not to compare myself to others as much even though it’s a true struggle. I have learned that everyone has different goals and different plans. And most importantly, I have learned that my choices cannot be made just to live up to the standards of others. So instead I have decided to hustle hard, think good thoughts, and be a goal digger.

And as my friends may sit in a campus library across the country, I can only hope that I won’t regret the decisions I have made.

-Madison George, Social Media Editor