Coming soon: A younger perspective
Contributing writer
In coming weeks, articles in the Record will follow high school students, answering such questions as: What’s going on in their careers? What’s the latest news from their schools? And do high school students have a secret superpower?
Insider information about high school life won’t be clouded from the perspective of people long since graduated. It’ll come straight from someone who can relate to today’s students — because she’s one of them.
I’m Willow Spence, a 17-year-old senior at Marion High, and I’ll be spending part of this semester on a work-study program covering school topics.
I’m involved in a plethora of them myself. I’m co-captain of the cheer team and involved in forensics, singers, Future Business Leaders of America, and the theater program.
Once I graduate, I will attend Wichita State University and work toward a bachelor’s degree in journalism and minor in creative writing.
I started writing when I was 6 years old — and, no, I do not mean diary entries.
So, what was a 6-year-old writing about? Anything and everything, from mythology to my underdeveloped understanding of romance.
I learned and formed my own personality through writing. My sense of safety and understanding came from putting my pen to paper or now fingers to keyboard.
For a long time, I was fearful of becoming lost in my own mind. I never was sure where it would lead me or whether I would return from inside.
I since have learned that it helps me develop as a human and a writer. We all are too afraid of what lies outside of our control — and even more so that floating organ in our head.
I am no exception to this, but the further I progress into my own life, the less afraid I become.
As I grow and develop as a writer, I dare to write stories people are most afraid to read. I enjoy pushing people out of their comfort zones and the suffocating bubbles society has created for us.
Journalism is no different except now these people are real, and so are their feelings and opinions.
Becoming a well-rounded individual grows not just from our school’s curriculum but also from our ability to socialize and understand others.
High school students whom we laugh off, saying “your life cannot be that difficult; you’re just a teenager,” actually are struggling with their own personal problems. People tend to forget that.
Just because somebody’s experiences and struggles are different from yours doesn’t mean they aren’t valid.
Yet, no one ever talks about these students’ lives aside from how they play in the starting lineup.
This semester, you will be offered an up-close and personal view into their lives — if you are brave enough. Dare to step out of your life and into someone else’s.