Be Uncommon. Change history.

Junior year started with a karabiner.

“You see these things,” our teachers asked. “They symbolize leadership.”

We have always been assumed the role of leaders, ever since that first handshake with Ms. Kennedy. We are, always have been, and always will be the pioneers of this school, which has provided us with the duty of being not only role models but also leaders.

But junior year has been different. Junior year has AP classes. Junior year has art and leadership class instead of theater and music.

Junior year is the year where college seemed to really become a reality, as we took the SAT for the first time, rewrote drafts of our college essays, and traveled to upstate New York in search of best-fit college. As we ventured off campus and into the real world for two weeks in our internships, doing big things.

And through all this, we remembered the first day of school, and the image of that karabiner, as we asked ourselves the question,

"Am I leading?”

We asked ourselves this question, as we spent breakfast lunch, and our time afterschool in APUSH independent study the week before the AP exam, as we wrote research papers on World War I propaganda, the cult of domesticity, and the Great Depression, as we read the entire American Pageant textbook.

And as the days before graduation dwindle, and the year comes to a close, we realize how much we have actually accomplished. Because throughout this year, we have been teaching ourselves to be intellectual leaders who are prepared for college. Individuals who are educated members of society, who advocate for the children of St. Jude’s Hospital, and for the education of children in impoverished areas. Young adults who can have an eloquent conversation on whether or not racism is in the DNA of America, or what the future of genetic engineering will bring to society.

Junior year has helped us live through the words,

“Be uncommon. Change History.”