I was surfing the internet, trying to find new ways to perpetuate my terrible senioritis, when I stumbled across a PBS documentary called “180 Days: A Year Inside an American High School.” PBS typically isn’t my go-to network for entertainment, but in an attempt to emotionally prepare myself for my departure from high school, I was desperate to induce stereotypical graduation nostalgia and sadness by watching other people go through high school. Instead, I received an eye-opening view on another high school in the D.C. area, and through this, the realization of how fortunate we are to get a world-class education.
I won’t go through all the details of the film (it is available on the PBS website for free online streaming), but in essence, the 2013 documentary follows numerous students, teachers and administrators during the 2011 school year at D.C. Metropolitan high school, affectionately referred to as “D.C. Met.” WJ is the antithesis of D.C Met; WJ is a large public school in an upper middle class area in a high performing county, while D.C. Met is a small alternative school whose students walk through the door with a “myriad of challenges” and oftentimes, behavioral issues. Although the students are from all over D.C., according to the film, 97 percent of the D.C. Met students were classified as “economically disadvantaged” in 2011, in a school district that consistently struggles with both a limited budget and substandard performance.
D.C. Met’s principal, an enthusiastic woman named Tanisha Williams Minor, finds herself under a lot of pressure to improve the school’s performance on standardized tests that determine the percentage of students that meet district readiness and academic standards. Minor states that only seven percent of D.C. Met students met the math standard, which was down from the previous school year. According to the US News & World Report, 95 percent of WJ students are either “proficient” or “advanced” in Algebra, as determined by the Maryland State Assessments (MSAs). The differences between the two schools and their students’ test scores are numerous, yet as students we are united by commonalities. We stress about college. We fear the unknown. We want to be successful in life. We want to be happy.
Thinking back on my four years here, I truly took my education for granted. High school definitely had its ups and downs, but in the end, most of us will end up where we need to be: the graduation stage. For underclassmen, just know that college acceptances are not the endgame. You will have to continue to work hard. After getting into college, I thought I would feel an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders, but instead, I felt a sense of urgency, a dire need to leave high school. Your life may seem to revolve around high school right now, but one day, it won’t. High school is just a stepping stone on the path of life, and you are far from the end. You may stumble, you may fall, and you may not be able to see the stones in front of you, but know that they are there. Since I am at the risk of regurgitating numerous cheesy Tumblr quotes, I will only say it once: life goes on.
I still remember my first day of high school. Despite having attended freshman orientation, I got lost on the way to almost every class. I had just entered a whole new world, and a sphere of endless possibilities. Somehow, I found my way to student journalism. Twenty-four print issues and hundreds of online articles later, I am happy to say I have been a part of this publication staff for three years. I can’t imagine high school having panned out any other way.
As graduation looms closer, the dark cloud of the unknown hovers over all of us. We are leaving our homes, and the heavily structured lives we have known for nearly 18 years. If our lives were movies, the trailers would be filled with suspenseful music. “Will they strive or will they flounder?“ would flash across the screen. But maybe that’s what college is all about. We need a place to discover who we are, space to make our own mistakes and an arena to facilitate the development of our futures.
There really just isn’t a good way to sum up high school, or the unknown future that awaits. One student speaking at the D.C. Met graduation put it best: “Are you going to play this game called life, or are you going to let it play you?”
We all have choices to make, and its those decisions that influence our futures. But just remember, good things come to those who persevere. Thanks for four years I will never forget, WJ. It’s been real.
