High School: the Memory

So, blogger is down for right now, so here I am typing my blog in Notepad until I can copy/paste/post it. Upon reading Thatcher's blog concerning giving up CC for turoring, I started thinking. I'm in the exact same boat. I mean, sure I dont run, but swimming is just as hard if not harder...probably harder actually :P But really, I've been talking to people who could really really use some help with math. Mostly Molly and Katie. I'm sure there are more people out there who could use some help, and wouldn't it be great if I/Chris/we could help them learn it all better? I'm not trying to sound arrogant here, I'm not having any problems with the math (at least for the time being!), and I would really like to help people.

The problem that has faced Chris, is choosing between helping these people and running CC for himself. I guess you could say that I am faced with the same problem, but really, I don't see this as a problem.

Here is where I begin to think independently from Thatcher :P (Independent thought!! Yay!) I say, why not do both. Sure, we are busy. I'm not saying that we have free time on our hands at all. For example, I am in/on:
The Orchestra Pit-- it has VERY hard music, which I must practice for outside of pit practice
which is, for now, Tuesday and Thursday after school for an hour
The Swim Team-- which goes from 2:30 to 4 or 4:30 every day (except for when I have the Orchestra pit after school, in which case I will soon be swimming AFTER pit practice Ultimate Frisbee Presidency-- I will be helping Chris out a lot, along with Nick, whenever we hold meetings, and whenever we are planning for games or practice or whatever.
Early Morning Seminary-- I have to wake up an hour before most of you peoples do and get to school. This means that I must go to bed earlier than most of you (much earlier that you Chris...go to bed, slacker!)

As you can see, I really am busy. I didn't even mention the 3 AP classes I have along with all the homework, or the job that I may be getting in the near future. Granted, for now, I have small amounts of homework from these classes, but towards the end of the year, I will be in a world of hurt with it, I'm sure.

But that's a different story.

The real story now, is why I do these things. You might say, "you are crazy, you fool! You are going to kill yourself with all this junk! Why are you doing this?" Well, as Chris stated that he is doing CC for himself becuase its is something he enjoys, I am doing all these things for my own gain. I am in high school. Thats something that is never going to happen again in my life. Never. I'll never have the opportunity to wake up and go to a place where I have friends and opportunities everywhere I look. I'll never have the chance to swim on a team again in my life. I'll never be able to play in musical again. After graduation, although I don't want it to happen, I will probably never see or hear from 98% of the the people I associate with right now. That includes Chris and James and Levi, who I have known at least half my life. I don't want to never see them again, but thats the way things work with high school.

My dad has made this point to me several times in just the last month. He always recals his high school life. He had a friend who was just like a brother to him. He always thought of him as a brother, never as just a friend. He did everything with him. (His name was Roland by the way, for the sake of my telling this story.) He knew Roland forever. Elementary through high school, they were with each other non-stop, from the time they blew up a giant bridge made out of toothpicks, to the time they welded another schoolmate in a locker at school. They were always there. Roland lived just a street over from my dad's house, and in fact, still does. He lives one street over from where my Grandma lives. Roland bought the house from his parents, and still lives there, and my Grandma still lives there. We visit her a lot. Its only a 15 minute drive to her house. Guess how often my dad talks to Roland now. Quick, guess. Yeah, he talks to him about twice a year. Whever he has been reminiscing old days, and remembers his friend, he calls him up on the phone, and they chat for a while, and then go their separate ways, once again leaving each other behind.

Now, what is my point? The people you are closest to now, now matter what you try and do after high school, are not going to stay in conctact with you, no matter how easy it is for them to do so. You will get busy with other things. You will meet a whole new cluster of people after graduation, whether it be at college, or wherever. You may get married. Most of us will go on missions for the Church. Your future will become more important than your past, and your focuses will be on finding that wife or husband, or fulfilling your Church callings. Your friends now will slip through your memory, and before you know it, you will realize one day that you haven't talked to your "best friend" for a year or more. Sure, that point may be down the road several years. You may try and keep in touch, but, as it is in most cases, you won't ever see that person again in your life.

Now I ask again: What is my point? My point is, dear reader, that you should be making the best of your high school life while you can. Do everything you can do now, do things that are abstract or challenging. Join those teams you half-heartedly want to join. Swim or run in those meets you hate to compete in. I guarantee, one day, you will look back on your high school career, and regret not doing more. You will regret not doing anything and everything you could with the masses of friends you had then. Sure, you will remember the good times you had, and the fun things you did in high school. But you will still regret not going out for the basketball team, or joining the swim or polo or CC team or whatever. You will regret it, because that memory won't be there, when it could have been.

We are making memories here, folks. Our high school experience now is our present. It is our lives right now. But that ends in 2 years, people. After that, high school is a memory. All you take from NOW, from high school, is your manuscript, your college credits you got, you ACT score, and the memories you made. Make it worth while.

Now, back to tutoring people. Thatcher, this post has been written with you in mind, for sure. I
really want to tutor people, just as you do. I want to share my understanding of math with those who need help. The problem still remains though: how do we make time to do it? I am here to say, we must make time for it, if its something that we really want to do.

We've got one shot at making our high school experience what we want it to be. Thatcher, this is my advice to you. You make your high school experience great. You make it great for yourself first, and then you make it as good as you can for others. Selfish? No. You have a life too. I know you love running. Dont give that up if thats what you really like to do. Sure, you might not run after high school. Or maybe you will. Either way, you will never be able to run like you can now with your team. With your friends. I think that takes priority. You cant sacrifice what you love for helping other people. Its a good cause, it really is, to help other people with their homework. But you need to do what you REALLY want to do, cus you've only got one shot at it, and thats now.

We can find ways to work out the tutoring stuff, we can make time for friends. If we can make time for scripture study, then we can make time for studying math. I'm going to work around my busy schedule so that I can help anyone who wants help, and I really think that that is what we should do. Sure, its just one more thing to bog us down, to make us more busy, but its also yet another thing that could make some good memories for us too. Its yet another opportunity that we only have in high school. An opportunity to spend time with people we have known for years, for people that may soon be memories.

So we make time. Put the trivial things on hold, and lets have some meetings. Random meetins, whenever we can, whenever we need to have them. That's when we tutor people. We dont have to do it during CC or Swim or Polo or Frisbee. We do it when we can, we do it when its best for everyone, not just the people who need help.

Well, I hope this has helped. Thatcher, I hope you have read this and have taken it to heart. Molly, Katie, all you who need help with math, I hope you have too. If not...well, who knows if you even read this. You probably don't, cus I don't think I've told you about too much. Either way, I'll have you read it, see what you think.

To the rest of you, comment. Please. Let me know what you think, I would appreciate some input. Thanks a bunch.