Wouldn’t it have been easy for a well-off, suburban boy like me to go to a well-off, suburban high school, hang out with other well-off, suburban boys, and believe that the world is full of the happiness and sunshine of my stable suburbia? Yeah, but that isn’t the path I’ve taken in my life. I grew up in a world that most people would consider pretty solid: good relationships with family and friends, safe house to live in, food always on the table, along with countless other blessings. When choosing where to attend school for seventh grade, I was drawn to my school for its emphasis on faith, along with its use of technology being such a large part of the curriculum. By the time I graduate in June, I will have learned a whole lot more in the last six years than just how to do cool things on a computer, or how to pray most effectively. I will have learned how to relate to people from all different backgrounds, appreciate the blessings in my life, and empathize with people of all sorts. The halls of my school are filled with all types of people imaginable: well-off, suburban kids like me, kids from low-income families trying to get a better education than what is offered in the city, Chinese and Korean exchange students, getting their education a long ways from home, and refugees from impoverished and at war countries in Africa. By attending my school, I have been able to interact with people from every social class on a day-to-day basis; those who are very rich to those who are very poor. There is not a day that passes that I am not reminded how blessed I am to have what I have and be who I am. This is my story. This is my life. This is who I am. Maybe I haven’t saved the world, or had a massive tragedy in my life. Maybe I was lucky to be brought up in a home with two, loving parents. Maybe I’m lucky to be living in the same area as where I was born. But every day I interact with people who haven’t been so lucky, and I learn from them.

Since I was a young, naïve seventh-grader I have witnessed firsthand not only my growth at school, but also the growth of my peers. Around 20 of my classmates who have attended school for as long as I have, six years, will graduate with me in June. This is a long time to spend in such a diverse melting pot, and the time has been well spent. I have been able to learn things about people much different from myself, things I never would have been able to learn if I had kept myself locked up under the rainbows and sunshine of my stable suburbia. I have learned that I am able to empathize with people very different from myself, who are experiencing very different things from what I have ever experienced. I have learned that I am able to make friends with people whose lives have been very unlike mine, because although someone may be different on the surface, a human being will always be a human being. I think my experiences at my school give me an advantage that few others have, and that is being able to truly relate with a wide variety of people. I believe this skill will allow me to be successful wherever I end up, because this world is a connected world, and to be truly successful I will need to be able to relate to all people on this now very small planet. My story may not be world-saving or heartbreaking, but it is who I am, and I believe it will allow me to succeed in this diverse and ever-changing world.