Commentator Editors

Cthe ommentator Vol. LXV, No. VI May 2018 Douglas Southall Freeman High School You Know You’ll Miss Us The Commentator Editors: Top (L to R): Tyler Hendricks, Nicholas Wright, Zach Schwertz, Jackson Woody, Mia Fuller, Caroline Wall, Ryan McCracken Middle: Megan Kelleher, Lauren Tull, Caroline Daniel, Lucy Collins, Hailey Reid, Ellie Somers, Liza Moody Bottom: Alex Moss, Sarah Halsey, Molly Herring, Rachel Alexander, Hank Holland Not Pictured: Nick Ulrichs The Underlying Value of Our Education a single glucose molecule pro- these are all monumental chal- Our skills, more refined. Our the change” is much easier said duces), one of the major flaws lenges that we will one day have knowledge, more expansive. than done. If we knew how to fix with today’s education system is to face head on. (Seems like a lot And our dedication, more fer- the world’s problems, wouldn’t that it fails to integrate the facts to put on an 18-year-old’s shoul- vent. We need to make 13 short someone have done it already? we learn in school into the bigger ders, doesn’t it?) We will be those years count, because though it This attitude, which I have sub- picture we will one day have to in power, those who take charge, may seem like we’re learning scribed to for the vast majority of tackle for ourselves. As it seems those whose agendas shape the meaningless trivia, we are being my relatively short life, discounts with many issues these days, the world around us. Until now, I’ve groomed for the challenges that the amount of trial and error in burden falls upon the teenagers. had trouble picturing that land- will inevitably face us. So look this world—all of the times that Honestly, I think recognition of scape; I’ve spent so many years beyond the the small scale: the really, the adults don’t know that idea is the most important living a premade world, anoth- next test, project, or reading as- what they’re doing either. thing any of us could take away er’s creation. But as I take the signment. Look into the future, I find some comfort in addi- Caroline Daniel from high school. If you never next step towards the rest of my where your problem solving abil- tion to terror from this notion. Editor-in-Chief learn to see the big picture, you life, my role as a shaper becomes ity, your logic, and your eloquent It means there is nothing to have wasted 13 years of your life less hazy, less impossible, and communication skills will help hold us back anymore. There is “Why does this even matter? learning information that you re- more defined. you change the world into one no reason to fear our new ideas Like, I’m not even trying to be ally will never use. It is patience The challenges rising to oppose you approve of. will earn the condescension and snarky, what is the point of this?” and the ability to approach prob- us grow stronger every day. Once Now is the time for us to be scorn of adults; we do not have These words left the mouth of lems logically that is the essence we lacked the ability to connect sponges, soaking in every ounce to have all the answers before we one of my senior classmates as of calculus, not the Fundamen- with faraway people and places. of information around us and attempt to solve today’s issues. we sat through our fourth mind- tal Theorem. English bestows Now, nothing is safe from the deciding for ourselves what poli- We are all in the same boat, all boggling lesson on taylor series the ability to communicate pas- reaches of the internet, an inven- cies we will continue to uphold hoping we’ll figure it out even- in BC Calculus (he shall remain sionately and persuasively and tion which has connected citi- and what we will change. It is tually as we plunge into the un- unnamed, but I will say that if to understand others, not just 85 zens from all corners of the earth easy and occasionally tempting known. In fact, I think we, the you are in the senior class, you different comma rules and some but has also brought unforeseen to shrug off the seemingly banal young people, have an advantage know him). nice, old stories. The true cur- consequences. Who knew that platitudes offered to us daily by in the fight to change the world. His genuine doubt about what riculum, hidden just a little too cyberbullying would become the adults who surround us. Be- We may not have experience, we were going to do with the for- well, is comprised of the skills a national issue? That foreign cause we live in a world where but we have energy. Knowing mulas in front of us, so nuanced we’ve learned, not the facts. It’s countries might have the capabil- innocence is easy to lose and dif- this, I will not try to recreate the and specific that they applied to up to us to choose to use them. ity to meddle in elections from ficult to guard, we already know past, continuing what has always only one problem set within one I, along with everyone else in the security of their own bor- many of them. We are continu- been done simply for the sake of unit of BC Calculus, represents my generation, have been told ders? That an entire generation ally underestimated for our col- tradition. Instead I will protest a feeling I know all of us have time and time again that it is would be in danger of losing the lective failure to act, a cycle that vigorously, vote knowledgeably, experienced. Though sometimes up to me to fix the world; it is ability to focus because an ever- is perpetuated because we fear and speak proudly to shape the we really are being sarcastic up to us. Climate change, gun changing, multi-faceted world adults will fail to take us seri- future, and I have Douglas Free- (right, like I’m ever going to need violence, poverty, hunger, drug has constantly surrounded them? ously or because we simply don’t man to thank for giving me the to know exactly how much ATP abuse, diplomatic tensions— We too must grow stronger. know how to proceed. “Being skills to do so. Learn to be Comfortable in Your Own Skin year, I walked into Freeman member of the program. with the version of myself that I I was ashamed of who I was feeling like the big man on cam- I initially cared so much about loved. around my teammates. Despite pus; I already was a member what people thought of me that I My inner-struggle eventually that, I always retained hope that of the cross country and track just didn’t say anything in fear of began to interfere with my so- my vibrant self would come out programs, so I felt like I already putting myself out there. Around cial life. My uneasiness made it the next season. knew everyone. After realizing my other friends, I was loud and more difficult for me to carry on To my regret, those hopes never the vast scale of the Freeman at times rambunctious, living conversations with my closest blossomed. Even though I was family, I quickly discovered how without a care in the world. I felt friends, my engagements with living one of my dreams as a wrong I was. My otherwise out- free to be myself and openly em- my family became seldom, and member of the team, my person- going personality locked up, and brace everything that made me my performance on the court al state left me feeling unfulfilled. my excitement faded into a stage different, but those quirks disap- soured. I was scared to touch the No matter who you’re around, of perpetual discomfort, a senti- peared as soon as I stepped in- ball in practice because I was ter- being uncomfortable with who ment I hoped would never reap- side the basketball locker room. rified of missing a shot or turn- you are is an awful sentiment. pear after that first day of fresh- My teammates were supposed ing it over in front of my team- My experience with Freeman man year. to be my brothers, but I always mates. I constantly panicked basketball is over, and my mem- For a few months, it seemed felt like an outsider around them and made a plethora of mental ories with the team hold a spe- like my hopes were coming into (don’t get me wrong, I love them mistakes that caused my playing cial place in my heart; however, fruition; I began to make plenty all to death). However, as it con- time in games to decrease every thoughts of how it would’ve Jackson Woody of friends by simply being my- tinued for four years, I finally single season. been different if I were my true Editor-in-Chief self. I felt socially invincible. I realized my problem: I wasn’t I went home everyday after self still haunt me. decided to try out for the ninth comfortable in my own skin. basketball and thought: “How Ultimately, my advice to every- Being uncomfortable in your grade basketball team. I’ve al- Every winter, my perpetual could someone as outgoing as one, no matter what you do or own skin is far too common. ways loved basketball, so I was shyness around my teammates myself always lock up around a who you surround yourself with, This is a sad byproduct of an age ecstatic when I made the team.

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