BY MICHAEL MENDIETA

Dear fellow peers,

What makes us fear growing up? What makes us not exceed our maximum potential? Is it that we feel threatened or inferior of other achievements? Or maybe it’s the fact that one day soon we will have to stop holding onto the past, we won’t be able to hide from our future and its developments. Whether your future occupation is a local gardener or a famous actor, you will be great at it because it’s who you want to be in the future and what you want to stand for.

In high school, we put up safety barriers around ourselves, because of the intimidation of  having to be something more than an average high school student. For most upper-class high school students we have already had this realization come to us. So, now we are facing the coming winds, head on with a fearful heart and a courageous mind, both characteristics that we all should learn how to master.

As our cards are laid out in front of us, it’s our choice to pick and play or fold and fail. It’s our choice to press forward to excellence or stay another average human being. A quote that parallels to this predicament is, “Life is what we make it. Always has been. Always will be.” With that phrase, I strive to face every new day with a hopeful heart and optimistic mind, to be a new me and make a better world for myself. This is your life; it is your choice to live and take charge, leaving fears and nervousness in the dusty tracks behind you. It’s your choice, no one else’s.

Fulfill your own destiny, chase after your own dreams and have them become a true reality to your being. Believe in yourself and find the personal strength that is screaming to be unleashed from within you; let it out and be freely you. Maybe then we won’t be in fear of growing up and becoming adults in the future.

Take chances and stop thinking and wondering to yourself “what if,” stop caring what the person next to you thinks; they don’t think and honestly I doubt they care. Do something because you want to, because you feel the need to shout it out to the world; be proud of the accomplishments of being influential in a spontaneous way. You wait around your whole life waiting for something amazing to happen to you, but then nothing happens and you get discouraged. Nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen. Walk with confidence and hold your head high because after high school, no one will stress with statuses, even if you dominated the top of the pointed pyramid or that you slummed to the crumbling bottoms. No one will care, because it doesn’t matter; it never did. Figure it out for yourselves; you’ll know it’s true as well. Be smart and be courageous, and stand out above the normality of our lives.