High School High Performers

Remember when you were in high school and you thought that you had your entire life planned out? I don’t actually know if any of you felt that way in high school, but I know that it seemed as if a lot of my friends and fellow students had their lives figured out, or so they thought. Personally, when I graduated from high school I had no idea what I was going to do other than going into the Army Reserves shortly after graduation. I had already signed the paperwork, so that was a done deal. 

With modern day technology and social media, I can actually see what some of my ex-classmates have done with their lives. As it turns out, I don’t think many of them hit the mark they thought they were going to when we were in high school. This is not a negative statement, after all, I didn’t even have a mark, but my life has turned out pretty good and I hope that all of theirs have too! My point is, and I wish I would have known this 30 or so years sooner, no matter what you think you are going to do may not always be the reality and while planning for the future is oh so very important, living in the now is equally important.

What do I mean by living in the now? I am not talking about living each day as if it were your last and partying to no end, but rather, ensuring that your every day and that the every day of those around you, is lived in a way that benefits all. Surely, I agree with you and think that is a very altruistic statement, but I say it also to make a point. When I was in high school, I lived for myself and my closest friends. I never thought about service to benefit others, especially any “service above self” type of sacrifice. I went to school so that I could graduate and do “something” and I worked hard so that I could have the things I wanted, the things that I thought were important back then, but those things benefitted nobody other than myself or my family or my closest friends. 

I am sure that the majority of you were not as self-centered as I was in your early or late teens and I only relate my state of mind when I was in high school to justify my overwhelming sense of being impressed by some of the ladies and gentlemen who are currently in our local high school. I am speaking of a specific group here and while I am sure there are many others just like them, I am very impressed by the members of the MDI High School’s Interact Club. These young adults are so involved in school and so many other activities, many of them competing for the same bits of free time these young people have, yet they still find time to serve their community, our community.

If you would like to find out just how impressive they are and what exactly they have on their community service docket for the upcoming year, then you should ensure that you are at Birch Bay Village for our lunch meeting this Wednesday at noon. Representatives of the Interact Club will be our speakers for this meeting and I hope to see you there, if for no other reason than to make them feel supported and appreciated by us, their sponsoring club! 

Thank you,

Shaun