By April-Joy McCann

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It’s hard for me to imagine that it is already the end of third quarter. It seems like just yesterday we were all excited and exuberant for our first day back to school. Looking back on your year, what do you have to say for all that you’ve done? I know I have a lot.

Going into senior year, I set a few goals for myself. Of course doing well academically and excelling in all my classes, but I also wanted to be a role model in everything that I did.

Instead of doing what most seniors do in their senior year, which is take their foot off the gas pedal and relax a little, I accelerated full force. Not only did I take two challenging AP courses this year, but I also decided to join more clubs. I was already a part of Science and Leo Club, but this year I wanted to do more by joining SkillsUSA and the National Honor Society, as well as completing Senior Project. And I did all of this while working a part-time job at Starbucks.

I thought I could handle the pressure. I thought I could handle doing everything at once and me writing to you today is proof that I did. But really, I barely scraped by. This school year has been almost nothing but stress and many sleepless nights.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I don’t know what kinds of things you were involved in this year, or if you were involved in anything at all. But my point is that you can’t allow these activities or your grades to define who you are as a person.

This year I was trying to do all these things because I found a part of me in them. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take up extracurricular activities. You definitely should. What I am saying is that what you do isn’t who you are.

What makes you who you are is the effort you put behind everything. What makes you who you are is how hard you worked when nobody else was watching. What makes you who you are is your passion, your patience, your persistence.

Despite how your third quarter went or how your school year has been thus far, my encouragement to you as we embark into the fourth quarter, is to continue pursuing who you are as a person and nothing else. If you can do that, then the success, the grades, will follow. If you can go into the fourth quarter knowing and believing that you are putting your best foot forward in everything you do, then that should be more than enough for self-fulfillment.

I know for many of you, this is the time when you feel like giving up, the point in the year when you lose all motivation. For you seniors, this is when senioritis really starts to kick in. Trojans, don’t allow these excuses to blur your life and high school experience.

We must stop thinking, “Eh. I’ll do better next year,” or, “I just don’t care anymore.” The fact of the matter is that we must keep doing what we feel is best.

Don’t make the same mistake I made, don’t put your value in the things you do. Instead, find your value in the “how” you get things done not the “when.” No one will see the results of your effort, but you will live life much happier and stress-free.

I am confident that fourth quarter will be much more worthwhile if we can be true to who we are.