Morality Over Magnetism by Lisa

Morality Over Magnetism by Lisa - November 2014 Scholarship Essay

As an eighth grader, you feel powerful, in control, and most of all, unstoppable. You rule the halls of middle school. But that power is short lived. Your next educational cage is high school. High school, the bigger, scarier place where the girls are meaner and the boys don’t care if you are smart or dumb; or so they depict in all the dramatized films. As an eighth grader I could not wait to get away from all the childish rules I had to follow and go to a place where I had more freedom with my friends. High school was not scary, but it was not at all how I expected. Friends of mine changed, they found new friends, new clicks, wore different clothes and behaved in different ways, it was as if the doors to the school caused everyone to shed their adolescent skin and start afresh in new flesh. Some people partied, others focused on sports, dance, or on their studies. No matter what their focus, in high school, everything is intensified.

As a current college student looking back on my experience as a freshman I wish I had someone to give me a better understanding of what high school would be like; how freedom and making ones own opinions required a new understanding of responsibility. My advice to the entire incoming freshman classes is to use your first year in high school to get a feel for your new and old friends. To figure out what you are and what you are not okay with. Do not let the influence of others dictate how you will live your life. Determining your own morals early on is so much more important than you realize or even want to realize! Let your friends know where your morals lie and you can avoid the pressures of everyday life, whether it is from alcohol and drugs or as seemingly harmless as cheating on tests and quizzes. How do you want to be viewed by others? Try not to let the magnetic pull of others’ actions get you stuck in situations you are uncomfortable with.