A soft rustle of a jacket, the dropping of a pencil and the ticking of the classroom clock filled the ears of my freshman self as I sat in my science class with heavy eyelids thinking to myself, “How am I going to last four more years of this?” Fast forward four years and here we are today, less than a week away from graduating and saying goodbye to the people we’ve been seeing almost every day of our lives for the past four years. With graduation so close, I’ve had a chance to reflect on my entire experience here at Temple City High School and I realized I managed to make it through four years here due to friendships (as cheesy as that sounds).
I’m an only child, so I grew up most of my life trying to take care of myself since I would have to do so in the now not-so-distant future. Of course my parents fed and clothed me (shout outs to Papa and Mama Dang) but academically and socially I was on my own for the most part, and I had no problem with that. I took responsibility for my studies as well as putting myself out there to make new friends; I took on every burden of my life alone and it was working for me fine (because really how much stress can a fourth grader have?), up until high school.
Anyone that knows me relatively well knows I’m in a dance crew with four of my closest friends, and some people may or may not know that I’m the one who makes our routines, I’m the one who has final say on what we’re wearing and I’m the shot caller. Now I know right now you may be wondering, “Geez, this guy has a huge ego,” but I assure you that’s not the case. I saw these responsibilities and took them upon myself voluntarily because that’s what I’ve been doing all my life, bearing all burdens on my own shoulders. Except this time, it wasn’t going to work out. Between school and other responsibilities, I didn’t have enough time to finish up our routine for the upcoming show and I broke down. I told them I wasn’t going to finish in time and that we were basically done for, at which point they all looked at me questioningly and told me to take it easy, and they would finish up the routine for me.
This was when I realized that getting through high school is quite a daunting task, without help that is. My crew was always ready to help me, but I had never asked for it. Nobody expected me to take on every single responsibility, except for myself. High school is a time when you’ll make some of the closest friends you’ll ever have, and they should be there to hang out with, as well as to provide support, encouragement and lend a helping hand whenever you need one. High school isn’t an experience you should have to go through alone. Don’t be afraid to ask others to help you, because at some point in our lives, we all need somebody to lean on.
TCHS School Newspaper