<p>It was most likely a cliche assignment given by none other than my AP Chemistry teacher. However, we had just watched The Last Lecture and she wanted to us to write a letter to incoming high school freshmen.</p>
<p>Would anybody care to read mine just for kicks? I want to know what other people think. Its already been turned in and graded.</p>
<p>I’m not anywhere close to a high school freshman or having a high school freshman, but I’d love to see it. Feel free to send me a PM or just post it here…</p>
<p>yes, post it if it gives good insight.</p>
<p>To an incoming freshman - </p>
<p>Its going to be a bittersweet parting. But then again, most goodbyes are.</p>
<p>I unwrapped the slate black notepad August 2005, before the first day of high school. I suppose I was a bit of an early bloomer; an eighth grade student with this at the top of my wish list, my 14-year old self careening through the pages with my 22-year old cousin on a midsummers night, waiting to write.</p>
<p>It was to be my mode of thought, explication, and movement through freshmen year, and, eventually, the rest of high school. I felt so prepared for these best days of my life. I believed I could predict the path of myself that I would not sway from, the friends I would make, or the activities I would involve myself with. To my relief though, I was wrong. </p>
<p>As the commencement of your high school career is underway and the nerves and expectations of a new experience infiltrate your thoughts, I urge you do to one thing - forget them. Do not forget the personal goals you have set for yourself or the belief that you should constantly work hard. But do forget the social expectations of high school, the magical picture you have painted it to be, and most importantly, put the idea of your graduation image out of sight and mind. </p>
<p>High school needs to be a journey. Arbitrarily speaking, you and the classmate sitting beside you will begin and end in the same place. You both have already begun at freshmen orientation and will end together at graduation; the destination is the same. Now, its the path that matters. Beginning on a self-constructed path of premature expectations and aiming for milestones without experiencing the corporal paths your peripheral looked past will limit the experiences and true growth high school should bring. This is a time to take a risk; find a path for yourself, and look around each corner to see where it may lead. And dont worry, mistakes are okay. If you want to turn around, go back, and start over, do it. </p>
<p>In the classroom, do one thing: learn. In the immediate era, and the friends you surround yourself with, grades may seem the end-all be-all in the world. Except, they arent. Only focusing on the next quiz, test, or other graded assignment will impede your mind of reaching its full potential. Focus on the intrinsic value of learning because an A (its in quotations for a reason) means nothing if a semester later you cannot recreate what you did to earn it. Education is only one part of the journey through high school, but make it an important part. If you learn simply for learnings sake, the other quantitative marks of your progress take a backseat to true knowledge. </p>
<p>Beyond the brief anecdotes within the black notepad and the writing of lessons learned is etched, in the front cover, the calligraphic symbol of simplicity. Though behind it is assumed chaos, with the tales of stress or fights or damned occurrences, at its core, it really is simple. Create a strong set of morals and ethics, and lead yourself based upon them. Beyond that, just live. Life will do the rest and the end will be as it is meant. </p>
<p>The black book was never the only path of exaltation or catharsis during my four years in and around campus. Until a near flat-on-my-face incident during sophomore year, I thought it was. Whether it is a coach, a teacher, counselors, or a friend, find a mentor. High school will present difficult situations, as it should. A span of time without an obstacle to overcome is not always a positive thing. If you find yourself in an overly repetitive lifestyle, change it, create new habits, and expand yourself. But during this inner growth, another person is essential to share it with. Loneliness is the feeling right now, but soon, a myriad of people will open themselves up to you, as you must also do. Seek them out to create an extended relationship. </p>
<p>A school is filled with finite entities. Whether it is a semester of courses, a football season, a month-long deadline, an exam, or the five minutes between classes, the things that begin in high school end in high school. The physical things you involve yourself with during your time here are all important, but when they end, what will you take from them? </p>
<p>Do not take a transcript full of As, or a wall full of trophies and accomplishments, a poor report card or a breakup letter. Within the clubs and organizations, the classrooms, the cafeterias, and the fields of play, cherish what you cannot see, or what you cannot hold. Do not just live in the high school, lead the high school. Every table you walk up to, bring a meal to it. Build character, exhibit perseverance, dedicate yourself, and be a friend. The intangibles separate the seemingly similar in high school. Character will triumph achievement. Though some may not agree, if one can only be obtained, never sacrifice achievement for being a person of good character and a strong moral foundation. </p>
<p>Four years from now, your own black book will need an end written to it. End it then, not now. Enjoy the journey you are about to set out on for its intrinsic value. Experience and value the times with friends, the pep rallies, the football games, and the other cliché memories of high school, but remember the value of yourself and the potential to change the world.</p>
<p>You have walked into a school for the first time where you will soon create a routine. You will integrate into a new community and change in ways your forgotten expectations would have not imagined. And though for four years you may feel you have walked the same path each day and accomplished the same routine, when its time to part ways and walk out for the last time, allow yourself to take a path outlined with maturity, responsibility, dedication, and strong ethics.</p>
<p>Only a few lines of my black book remain empty, now. After filled, it will only be opened sparingly, to remember the moments and conversations that must remain. But only after I write in it, these last, simple, moments. </p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck in these next four significant years of your life.</p>
<p>A superb letter filled with excellent advice. This should be one of the threads that stays at the top of the CC forum.</p>
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<p>Words to live by, both in high school and beyond.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for sharing - my daughter is salutitorian and I’m thinking about suggesting a similar theme as this can be appropriate for entering high school and college.</p>
<p>Okay honestly I think that this is pretty bad. First of all, the “black book” metaphor is obnoxious an unnecessary. If you’re going for a Randy Pausch style of communication here, you don’t need to follow the cliched path of every single high school essay, that being the requirement for weird metaphors and hyper-poetic language that really get in the way of what you’re trying to say.</p>
<p>There is some great stuff in here (“Every table you walk up to, bring a meal to it.”), but a lot of this seems really forced to me. Don’t buy into the hype that that kind of stuff is good writing. You want to avoid overly abstract terms and contrived language and convey your point in the most effective way possible. Ironically the way that you’re writing now isn’t “artistic” or “creative” or “euphonic”… it’s just the way that every single end-of-high-schooler writes.</p>
<p>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.</p>
<p>^ :(</p>
<p>I thought it was very good.</p>
<p>@khaki: I do not think that this is the way that every single end-of-high-schooler writes. It is certainly not the way that the majority of QMP’s classmates wrote at the end of senior year. I read a lot of personal essays, and I liked it quite a lot. But the difference in our reactions probably explains (indirectly) why many people get into some highly selective schools and not others.</p>
<p>khaki: thanks for the feedback. You are going to Yale, so you must know a little bit about writing stellar essays. </p>
<p>no sarcasm. I mean that.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted and turned Yale down and she thought your essay was quite good. Perhaps another thought for your essay - you can’t please everyone so don’t be upset when you don’t!</p>
<p>My daughter is entering one of Michigan’s best high schools next year and needs all the advice she can get. Thanks!</p>
<p>I am going to read this letter to my daughter and I hope she “gets” it. Although some lesson can’t be taught they just have to be learned through living. Thanks</p>
<p>Although the content of your letter is great, I don’t think it’s written in a style that entering high school students are likely to enjoy reading. Frankly, I think most of them will stop reading after the first few sentences.</p>
<p>Kids, perhaps even more than other people, like short sentences, familiar words, and the active voice. They want something they can understand the first time they read it. They have a low tolerance for excess verbiage and, shall we say, cattle excrement.</p>
<p>Most adults feel the same way. That’s why there’s a big push for plain language in writing right now – even in the federal government, which is known for spewing page after page of incomprehensible jargon.</p>
<p>So instead of “In the immediate era,” you might try “Right now.”</p>
<p>Instead of “As the commencement of your high school career is underway and the nerves and expectations of a new experience infiltrate your thoughts, I urge you do to one thing - forget them,” you might try “Of course, you’re nervous about starting high school, but try to forget about it.”</p>
<p>Instead of “You will integrate into a new community and change in ways your forgotten expectations would have not imagined,” consider “You’ll change in ways you don’t expect.”</p>
<p>Take your ideas and write them again as though you were talking to your younger brother or sister. Your audience will appreciate it.</p>
<p>Ditto Marian. (I’m an English teacher who reads a lot of college essays.)</p>
<p>This is an old thread. Raceme is probably a junior in college by now.</p>