senior statements
28 ◆ Newtonite, Newton North
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Graduate with no regrets, look towards the future Halfway through junior year, I forgot my locker combination. It was the day after February break. Too ashamed to bother the custodians, I just left it locked, letting the few binders and packs of gum stay there for the rest of the year. Now it’s demolished. The chance of me getting back whatever was left is a snowball’s chance in hell. It is among the ruins of the first high school that we had to leave behind. Do I regret not opening that locker one last time? Not at all. That one locker is a metaphor for all the experiences and things I could have had at Newton North. The past four years of Newton North have been a whirlwind I can barely encapsulate in a few paragraphs. So, the
best way I can sum up my high school experience comes from a saying that used to be plastered around the old Dickinson field: No regrets. A few weeks ago, right around when college decisions were coming out, I started making a mental list of all the things I wish I had done. Pretty soon, I realized how silly this was. High school is practically over, and we cannot change the time that we have spent here. What has happened over the past four years, in the building at 360 Lowell Avenue and the building at 457 Walnut Street, has passed. We will never be able to go back in time and re-live the past four years with the retrospective wisdom. The lockers that we kept locked can never be re-opened. We can
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Jared Kalow never again pass through the dark, winding corridors of the old building and admire the mu-
rals. We can never experience the rapid temperature changes as we traverse the school. We can never again walk down the red-brick Main Street. All we can do is accept the joy and the tragedy that we have lived through between September 2007 and today. There are plenty of lockers that I left locked, not just that one in dark green. But there is no point in remembering what could have been and what should have been. What we can do now is to celebrate what we have achieved and move forward. I’ll be the first one to admit it: I’m burnt out of high school. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Newton North is a place of unimaginable opportunities. I took advantage of as many
opportunities as I could, and I do not look back and wish I had done something else. Newton North has given me, and the rest of the Class of 2011, all the tools to succeed as we move on to the next stages of our lives. The most important things that I’ve taken away from the whole shabang are to take advantage of every opportunity, never take anything for granted and most importantly, never look back. The last four years at this school made me more than proud to be a Newton North Tiger and a member of the Class of 2011. We’ve been through a lot, but we are stronger than ever and finishing four fantastic years together. Congratulations! —JARED KALOW
Do not let high school opportunities pass you by When Mr. Mitchell, my Latin teacher for my first two years at North and one of my favorite people ever, passed away in the middle of our sophomore year, I came to a realization: life is short. People always say that, but as a teenager, the days seem like they last 30 hours, not 24, and a week seems like a month, not seven days. Once I experienced this loss, however, I realized how true this was. Mr. Mitchell did not miss one day of class our freshman year (much to our chagrin because all we wanted was one day free of conjugation and translation), and he was more in shape and healthy than anyone
I knew. In one night, he could swim the entire length of a lake, run a marathon and still have time to read The Odyssey for the hundredth time (in the original ancient Greek of course). He seemed like the picture of health, until he unfortunately got sick and passed. His death taught me that there is no time like the present, and if I wanted to do something, I had to go get it for myself. Up until then, I had been too self-conscious to do what I wanted. I was a member of a couple clubs, but I would only attend meetings, not actively participate. I rarely talked if I was not called on in class.
As teenagers, we are naturally self-conscious and think that people are staring at us and critiquing every little thing we do. Newsflash: they are not! With my realization that life, as well as high school, goes by quickly if you are not paying attention, I decided to focus on what I wanted to do and achieve. I spoke up and actively participated, and I felt that I was actually contributing something meaningful. What I challenge you to do as high school progresses or college looms is to try focusing on yourself and what makes you happy and excited because the only person you have to please at the end of the day is
Discover your true identity What is a high school? I’ll give you a minute...most of you reading this probably think it’s a stupid question. “Everyone knows what a high school is, moron!” One of you might say. Another one of you might say, “A high school is a school, especially in the United States, usually including grades 9–12 or 10–12” because that’s the definition given in the MerriamWebster dictionary. But, let’s take a moment to really think about this extremely difficult question. Allow me to assist you. A high school is a place where a kid can walk in, clueless and perhaps still slightly unfortunate-looking from the treacherous middle school years and become a freshman.A freshman with an amusement park of opportunities ahead of them. They walk into the school on the first day, completely unaware of the kind of individuals they will become as seniors. Completely unaware of the indulgent faculty members that were hired and endless course opportunities that were designed for the sole purpose of guiding them on their journey to find themselves. Sounds kind of like a hallmark moment to me. Some of you might be saying, “That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever read.” However, a certain level of “corniness” is necessary, in fact, required, when describing such important and valuable aspects of one’s life. Most psychologists will tell you that the main aspect of one’s personality that developes during the high school years is identity. This powerful description of oneself is incredibly poignant, and finding this “identity” can be extremely difficult. However, there are teachers, friends and family available to
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Edan Laniado assist with this task and offer you a familiar question: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” A very troubling question. Most people have no idea what they want to do when they grow up, and high school is a place where people are expected to have no answer to that question. In fact, it is even harder to answer because of the plethora of opportunities laid out from day one. These opportunities are what make high school unique. It is a place where everyone can find their niche.
Of course, there are times when the last thing you want to be doing is solving an algebraic equation, but it is this knowledge that helps your brain develop a sense of what you enjoy and what you do not enjoy. A place where one can grow from being an immature freshman, confused about most things, to being a successful, knowledgeable senior with a whole life ahead of them. And not only that, but a brain full of memories and relationships with individuals unlike any other that will always be treasured. That to me is not what any old high school is. That to me is what Newton North High School is. So now let’s go back to the question: what is a high school? I think Merriam-Webster dictionary already answered the question for us. What MerriamWebster fails to define, however, is Newton North High School. And here I am now, a senior at Newton North High School, with my own definition. Newton North High School is a place where academics and social experience go hand-in-hand in the development of growth, opportunity, individuality and of course, sustenance of the human spirit! —EDAN LANIADO
Congratulations, Rachel! Knock 'em dead in Toronto. –Mom, Dad, Jordan and Ethan
yourself. If you want to join the Science Team or dye your hair purple, do it! Tell the class about your opinion of Daisy in The Great Gatsby or try out for the musical because to be honest, you have nothing to lose. You’ll regret it more if you don’t try than if you do and don’t do well. Newton North has so many opportunities, and you shouldn’t miss out on them because you’re scared of failure. You never know where life is going to take you, but what you can control is the present, so why not take advantage of this great school and all it has to offer? —SASHA LAND
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Sasha Land
Congratulations Joseph on all that you have achieved! We are very proud of you! Good luck at Bentley! We love you, Mom, Dad, Nicholas, Robert, Steven and Giulia
Congratulations to
Emily Gulotta You’ve earned it!
Love, Mom and Dad