The Voice of Grainger by Taylor

The Voice of Grainger by Taylor - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

“Good morning Grainger High School! This is your host, Taylor Sandifer, bringing you today’s thought of the day… Thank you and have a good day.”
I wrote this short script at the end of my junior year when I started doing the morning announcements. It’s cheesy; I say it in a quirky voice; and nothing has made my mornings more meaningful.
Senioritis could have taken ahold of me as soon as I started senior year. Why get out of bed today? You won’t be here much longer anyways. Wait, Taylor, don’t forget, you’ve got to do the announcements today. You’re the only one who does this. People are relying on you to give them a little boost in the morning. Even if your inspirational quote doesn’t help, maybe your cheekiness will make a gloomy person chuckle a bit.
It wasn’t always like this, though. Last semester, some freshman girls wanted to start doing quotes of the day, but they were too shy to speak in front of the school every day. So, I stepped up to the task, but I also shared the mic with a senior who delved into community theatre. I thought it would be great! We’d be two actors, delivering your daily parcel of inspiration, and we were assigned varying days so that neither of us would get burnt out. What I didn’t realize was that the senior didn’t like me very much. In fact, she hated splitting the spotlight with me and was determined to do anything she could to tear me down- behind my back. One day on social media, she tore into me and the way I’d do the morning announcements.
“This is what the announcements sounded like this morning,” she claimed before vigorously shaking her phone. To this day, I can’t believe this action was committed by somebody older than me. My friends discovered this and told me, but they decided to take the indirect approach. They asked me to try to do the announcements calmer because there were some hecklers. When I found out what really happened, I was absolutely enraged. I determined that I was going to confront the girl, myself. However, when it came down to it, I felt depressed and betrayed. Was I making anybody feel better if my own co-host was clicking her tongue at me?
Our teacher/supervisor put a cap on the issue, once and for all. We talked it out, if you can call it that. The senior realized that she could get into trouble for this, and she started crying when she “apologized”. I’ve seen those tears before. Those were tears of fear, not tears of regret. Nevertheless, I forgave her, and she was banned from the announcements. I thought that we’d get somebody to replace her, but our teacher told me, “You’re the only one I want doing this.”
I took her comment to heart, and I’ll never forget it. I’ve flown solo ever since that day, and I continue to do my announcements to this very day. The responses I’ve gotten since then have been phenomenal. The JROTC teacher refers to me as “The Voice of Grainger”. People stop me in the hall, telling me that they needed something to cheer them up. In one of my favorite cases, a boy got so excited to see me while I was on air that afterwards, he shook my hand and he hugged me.
I can say, without a doubt, that this is the most gratifying event I’ve had the privilege to be apart of at Grainger. There will come a day that I sign off for good, but when that day comes, I want to immortalize the memories with a single, simple senior quote:
“This has been your host, Taylor Sandifer. Thank you. And have a good day.” -VOG