Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

As a senior, the time of year after sending in early college applications is a time of reflection. At this point, I’ve experienced my last Summer @ Stanford, my last fall midterms, my last parent-teacher conferences. Soon, my last fall semester of high school will have slipped away. I’m struck with a sense of urgency—a panicked desperation to experience all that our school still has to offer me, to cherish each moment with my friends, and to share all my ideas to make the contributions that I’ve hoped would make our school an even more closely-knit community.

Yet, adjacent to my desire to maximize my remaining time at OHS is the reality of readings and homework every week and deadlines on the horizon. I think many students can relate to the annual post-summer burst of inspiration that promises to make each school year more exciting and productive than the last, which is quickly deflated by a seemingly-endless to do list. 

While I’d like to think that I’ve made the most of this last first semester, I can’t help but recall the weeks where being busy with college applications or other work became an excuse to participate less in class, to neglect my clubs, to spend less time calling my friends. I wish I could tell myself from one or two months ago that I do have time to throw myself into those activities. How I organize my time is a reflection of the priorities I’ve chosen, because we always make time for the things that we see as priorities.

I’ve always been curious about why OHS club engagement tends to falter towards the end of the first semester, and sometimes drizzles away by the second. I’m sympathetic to the fact that all of us have busy schedules. But sometimes participation is just a matter of sending a few messages in a Skype group, a thirty-minute meeting once or twice a month. It sounds like such trivial activities wouldn’t make a difference, but to put it grandly, these are moments where you have bravely chosen to reach out into the interwebs and found that your classmates—scattered across the globe, passionate about all sorts of different things—are not so far and unreachable after all. 

I’ve been asked as a ‘wise and experienced’ senior for advice on how to survive OHS, how to make the best of your years here. Again and again, I will say this: choose to make the OHS community a priority.

OHS is a truly remarkable place because it is perhaps the only high school in the world where your experience is entirely your choice. We all experience this with the flexibility of our course options and schedules, but it extends to how we engage with one another as well. I do not regret a single moment that I’ve invested into building clubs, chatting in office hours, or developing friendships with my incredibly lovely peers. I know that had I not spent so much time with the OHS community already, my sense of urgency to experience it all now would be overwhelming. Don’t procrastinate on developing your social life here: your peers at OHS are people you will wish you had known all your life, who you will want by your side for the rest of your life. 

Many of you will read this and think, “I have time.” You do. I hope reading this letter has given you a better idea of how you may want to spend it.

Cheers,

Hannah

Editor-in-Chief