One thing I have learned throughout my high school career is that not everything goes according to plan. Learn to expect the unexpected. In my freshman year, I came in with a four-year plan, my hopes and goals for the next few years. I felt that everything would have to go exactly according to plan to have a productive and successful four years.
The first wrinkle to that plan came just a few weeks into freshman year, when I stumbled upon The Tide interest meeting. I never thought about writing for a newspaper, but I decided to sign up to be a news writer. Little did I know that that decision would become a formative part of my high school experience. I wrote many articles that year, covering topics from masks in schools to cyberbullying. When I wrote these articles, they also never went as planned. Oftentimes, I would get interviews on the due dates and write the article in one sitting, which taught me the beauties of journalistic procrastination. I then decided to apply to become an editor for the following year, which again threw off my four-year plan, as I would have to take journalism rather than AP Economics.
As an editor during my sophomore and junior years, I was introduced to opportunities I hadn’t expected. In both years, I edited for sections that I had not originally planned to, which presented their own unique challenges but, again, taught me to see beauty in the unexpected. Both years, I gained valuable relationships and experiences that I never would have gotten if everything had gone exactly as planned. During these years, I truly learned to embrace the circumstances I was presented with, rather than dwell on what I didn’t get to do—the time I spent sending out article assignments, placing “said” in the right part of the quote and going on Starbucks runs, made me appreciate my time and role on The Tide.
Something is to be said about the phrase “rejection is redirection” because slight deviations in plans do not mean your whole future is derailed; instead, they challenge you to change course and embrace every opportunity. If everything had gone according to plan throughout my high school career, I never would have joined The Tide, been given a chance to figure out how to manage a website, found a little school in Ohio that I get to call home or met so many people that I call friends. I can reflect on all the times things didn’t go my way, and confidently, at the end of four years, say that everything works out in the end. The “everything” may not be exactly what you set out for during your freshman year; your “everything” will probably take many twists and turns throughout these four years. But in the end, you will end up exactly where you are supposed to be.
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