I have always been a perfectionist, since I was just a little girl obsessing over a first place trophy at a dance competition. My perfectionist qualities did not fall short in high school. While sometimes it is a blessing and a curse, it is what pushed me to do my best in my academics. I graduated this year with a 4.16 GPA, the peak of my high school grade point average. However, this took a lot of hard work. A lot of sleepless nights, days spent staying after with teachers, and countless hours spent on studying and staying on top of my assignments. My grades always came first, but there was definitely more to school than what could only be demonstrated on paper. While it was rewarding to work hard and receive good grades, there’s a lot of other aspects of an “education,” that people forget about. One significant thing to me was learning more about my community through volunteering. My junior year I became a part of the National Honors Society, where we do community service acts and tutoring. I also joined two clubs, Key Club and the Above the Influence Club back in my freshman year, and have been a loyal member since then, and became the public relations officer this year for Above the Influence club. My freshman year, I felt like I didn’t know the true extent of giving back to the community and being someone who listens to other people’s stories. Now, looking back, my experiences with going to the Holyoke Soldiers Home to spend time with the veterans there, collecting donations for soup kitchens, helping with local events for children, and listening to people’s stories with substance abuse has shaped the person I am now. These real life experiences are truly where I excelled, and learned the most. Listening to all different types of people’s stories, whether it be an elderly man who served in the war, or a woman who struggled with addiction all her life, has taught me so much about what is truly important in life, and inspired me to be present in the moment and to stay grounded with my goals. I know that when I’m older and I look back at my experience in high school, it will not be just the diploma and my transcripts that I remember. It will be what I did to better my community and how I impacted the people around me, that will be cherished forever. Without tutoring, another student would have never understood those algebra formulas. Without listening to wiser and older people’s stories about life, I could have never shared them with my siblings and made them understand how we should live life in the moment. Who knows. Maybe the veterans at the soldiers home don’t have any family nearby, and this was the first time in a while someone came and sat with them and laughed with them for a few hours. Or a child in my community doesn’t have an older sister that will play games with them. What I do know is that taking advantage of the opportunities I was given in high school to not only excel in my academic education, but in my education about life and other people, is what was most important to me, and what I think my family and community will remember about me forever.