Four years ago I entered the halls of Enloe High School with absolutely no idea of the magic hidden inside the walls, inside each and every one of us. For inside us all there lies a magic, a spark. Some define it as ambition. Some define it as luck. And others say it is potential. Really, it is not any of those; it is the power to be somebody.
Looking around I see people; living, breathing people. Everybody has their own stories. Some are trying to find themselves. Some do not think that much, and just worry about their next math test. It is in these moments when one contemplates the idea of sonder. That is the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own; populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness–an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you never knew existed in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk (as defined by the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows). What I have always loved about our school is the diversity. Here I find people from all walks of life: white, black, tall, short, athletic, or book-y. This school has truly taught me the value of a person, the true singularity of each and every one of us. All of us, each of our own individual, unique selves are all a part of each other’s stories. Indeed, none of us would be the same way or in the same place without one another. Like pieces of a puzzle we come together in each others lives to make a full picture.
Now take it to a bigger scale. Imagine sonder in the real world. The man you see on the corner begging, he is living a life as vivid and complex as you. He has a family. He knows the world. He’s experienced love, sorrow, anger, and, perhaps most of all, hopelessness. In your story of prosperity and good fortune, he is just a passerby. But his story is defined by sorrow, neglect, hopelessness. He lives that story each and everyday of his life. Now we go back to your power. Your little piece of magic inside you. The power to be somebody. To reach across bridges. To become more than a passerby in this man’s story, but a salvation.
Four years ago I entered the halls of Enloe High School as a different person than I am now. I’ve learned and grown to be the person I am, and in large part that is due to what I saw when I walked through these halls. I saw people harnessing their power, and that inspired me to see the spark in myself. I saw StuCo making the most of their abilities as people and now I am honored to be a part of it. We are all puzzle pieces and together we can make the picture one of hope, love, and prosperity.
Mikhail Reza
Junior Class Advisory Representative