To the ETHS students and staff:

I’ve been struggling for a long time to try and sum up my feelings about my last four years at ETHS. I am extremely excited about what’s to come next year, yet I feel a profound sense of sadness because everything is ending. Not only high school, but a larger culmination of thirteen years of public school. Maybe I’m just being overly sentimental because this is the official end, but when I look back on high school, I don’t think I’ll remember the late nights I stayed up doing homework or how I did on a particular test. What I’ll remember best is the people I’ve met and what I’ve learned from them. In a traditional sense, I’ve had many wonderful teachers who have provided numerous opportunities inside and outside of the classroom. Because of these experiences, I was able to discover what I liked and explore those subjects. ETHS staff have also put together countless events and created organizations that I have been able to participate in and gain from. For that I owe a huge thank you to many ETHS staff members for their hard work and effort. In a different way, the student body has taught me so much. As much as I would like to avoid politics, I’ve learned at ETHS that I can’t, and so I must acknowledge what I’ve learned about politics during the last four years. I’ve witnessed the power we have as students as well as the importance of reflecting on one’s own beliefs. I’ve learned that discourse is difficult but necessary. I’ve considered my impact on others and the importance of that impact. This lesson is something that was reinforced by individual students: that the little interactions between people matter just as much as the big ones. I don’t know many of you very well, or even at all. Many of you are just faces in a crowd whom I know nothing about. Some of you I’ve gone to school with for thirteen years. A few even more than that. Regardless, I’m sure that my experiences are not unique. Maybe I dropped a pencil, and you picked it up for me. Maybe you smiled at me and acknowledged me by name in the hallway even though we weren’t close friends. Maybe we complained about a math test together during class. There are tons of these moments, all of which are important to me even if I can’t remember them all individually because they showed me that regardless of one’s political beliefs, everyone had the capacity to be kind. These seemingly minor occurrences in the grand scheme of high school improved my day even if it was just for a little bit. I will miss those weird inside jokes one class shares, the people whom I talked to in one class freshman year and never spoke to again, and the little conversations I had with my classmates. I share this with you all in an attempt to show my deep gratitude for the past four years. We all stand on the precipice of something great; something new and exciting that none of us have really experienced before. Whatever you’re doing next year, I hope that you can look back fondly on at least some of these little moments just as I have.

Sincerely,

a fellow student