I am a member of the WS community. I am a member of a diverse group of students. I am fully accepted by my peers. I am happy to call Northern Virginia my home.
It’s easy to see when you walk through the halls of WS that we are a very eclectic group of people; every race, interest, hobby, point of view, sport and style is well represented within these walls. Over all I would argue that most at WS are pretty accepting of their peers.
This is a blessing, that we are able to accept different groups and their opinions. I would venture to say that within the walls of WS few have seen their views widely shut down or ways of life ridiculed and be subject to outright hatred because how they choose to live or how they were born.
Living where we do we are have endless opportunities to succeed and be the best that we can. Most of us at WS plan on attending college and intend on making an impact while some have already done so. Attending a Fairfax County Public School we are branded as being some of the top students in the country but our infinite chances to thrive are not limited to the classroom.
Although there are those in our community who struggle finically, most do not have any problem putting food on the table and heating the house in the winter. This makes us some of the richest people in the world. All across the world people have different cultures and in America we have our own culture to call our own. Those who we consider to be most similar to us would be European cultures but in fact they aren’t as similar as we might think. Conveniences such as dishwashers and air conditioning are not as common as they are they are in the United States. All of us are guilty of taking these things for granted and do not know what to do with ourselves when the power goes out. My family is even guilty of owning a generator so that way we do not have to suffer through the elements and no electricity.
Taking ridiculously long showers and keeping the water running while doing the dishes are just a few examples of how wasteful we are of water.
Here in ‘NoVa’ we have a habit of focusing on all the wrong things. We are more concerned with taping tonight’s episode of the voice than about an esaay thats is dude tomorrow. One of our biggest blessings is thta we have a free education that makes it manditory for us to learn. And I know that getting up every morning at six in the morning to sit through 8 hours of work isn’t the picture of fun but we should be more apreactive of our schooling. Since we are required to go to school we sometimes loose sight of the how important our education is and we jsut sort of go through the motions.
Since this way of life is normal for us it is easy to loose sight of how lucky we are. It is normal for us to forget how fortunate we are to live here and attend a school where we are encauraged to do our best and where people belive in us.
We are blessed to have found a place where those who are accepting far outnumber those who reject dissimilarities and where we do not have to worry about where our next meal is coming from.
Next time you are complaining about not having cell service please remember how privileged you are. We all should feel lucky to have what we do have, compared to other countries and other areas.