Wally (#wattys2016)

i. the 38th parallel

Tick-tock, tick-tock .. tick-tock, tick-tock ..

Could school drag out any longer? Honestly, once AP exams and SOLs are over and you don't have any final exams to take, the school should congratulate you for your hard work during your Senior Year and let you end school a week earlier than usual. Instead, we still have two weeks left of school, which is completely unnecessary. Now, all the teachers have nothing planned to do so they just give us superfluous end-of-the-year final projects that are useless. What is the point of school if all you do is sit in class with nothing to do but stare at the wall? It's worse than what people describe detentions as. I have to work on this stupid English project where I have to write a paper about myself - my 'story' - whatever that means, and read it in front of the class. Okay, a.) these questions are stupid because b.) it forces seventeen-eighteen year olds to define themselves under two pages or less which c.) is incoherently impossible to do. One of the hardest things to do in life is write an essay that asks you to describe yourself because in real honesty, as cliché as it may sound, we don't truly know who we are yet. We've only lived a short duration of our lives - just seventeen or eighteen years - and so, all I'm inclined to say is that I've attended school for the majority of my life.

    I bet if I asked a fifty year old man to write a paper about himself, he'd hesitate and stare blankly down at the paper, lost in his jumbled up thoughts. I haven't even stepped out into the real world yet and teachers expect me to write a paper about who I am. I don't have the slightest clue as to who I am and probably won't until I'm on my death bed, gasping for my very last dying breath. We, as students, are immediately judged and slapped in the face by a label that apparently defines who we are by society just because. There are the jocks, the cheerleaders, the losers, the class clowns, the artists, and the list goes on. But the fact of the matter is that once we leave high school, a majority of us will be different and defy the very labels that once defined us back in high school. The school jock won't always be a jock - he might end up in a lonely office cubicle trying hard to pay off last month's rent. The cheerleader won't always be the most popular girl in school - she might end up as a waitress working three part-time jobs to pay for night classes. Maybe those examples are a bit too harsh and a tad bit negative, but nonetheless, I'm just saying that we don't know who we are yet, so we shouldn't be given impossible questions like 'describe yourself' or 'what is your life story?'.

    At this point in my life, I'm Pennington Heights High School's second biggest loser. (Side note: Arnold 'Arnie' Seamen is the first biggest loser, you can only imagine why. A hint: his last name). I'm a complete nobody and invisible to everyone. I'm the loser who 'pooped' his pants in the first grade because I fell in a big puddle of mud during recess time. I'm the loser who's had the biggest crush on the most popular girl in school, Jane Donovan, since the second grade. I'm the loser who is the Valedictorian, yet is still bullied and ignored by everyone. I'm the loser who's even more irrelevant than the kid who wears the school mascot - the pirate - I mean, everyone hates the person who wears the mascot yet that kid is more liked than I am. I'm the loser who is obsessed with both astronomy and astrology (and knows the difference between the two), and owns a big telescope. I'm--

    "Wally, let's go. What are you still doing in here, the bell rang a few seconds ago." My best friend and only friend, Miles Miller, poked his head inside the empty classroom (even Mr. Finn had left the class). I quickly grabbed my backpack off the floor and got up, hauling it over my shoulder. Miles Miller has been my best friend since we were in diapers. His parents are best friends with my parents, so we just naturally became best friends. He isn't a big of a loser as I am, but since he hangs out with me .. he is. I feel bad for him. He had a lot going for him. He's very active in school - he is captain of the Varsity Boys Tennis team and also President of Key Club. Due to his easy-going and gregarious personality, he's accepted by society. But again, I'm the downfall of his high school career. I actually feel bad for him ... that he met me.