My eyes stared blankly at the full board, every part of my body falling limp at the thought of copying each word onto my scraps of paper. The pencil looked nauseating. My mind was clouded with scenes of summer. While the teacher continued to speak, all I heard was the sound of waves against the shore.
There comes a point during every school year when some students may feel the same anticipation I do. For seniors, it is called senioritis. It is the point when many are losing motivation and cannot seem to find it within themselves to even write down notes. Rather than hearing the lesson at the front of the room, students can only hear the ticking of the clock.
When the school year nears the end, some students still have AP tests to take and a whole fourth quarter of grades remains to affect our GPAs. As close as summer seems, there are still several weeks of the school year to take into account.
Education is something that we should value more than we do. Growing up in school, it has never been considered much of a privilege, but rather an expectation. Young children are expected, by law, to go to kindergarten. While this is a benefit in America, it allows students to take education for granted more easily than students in other countries. There are several places in the world where students fight to learn to read a book. There are children who struggle and dream of sitting in front of a board and listening to the endless lectures of teachers. They strive to learn and gain more and more knowledge. Here all around us, there are students who sleep in class or constantly complain about the school system.
While it is the last quarter, it is arguably the most pivotal part of the school year. Why let all the hard work go to waste now when we are so close to the end of it all? Completely losing any motivation or encouragement at this point in the year will make all of the late nights, homework and time a huge waste.
I can practically feel the poolside calling my name. My eyes stay glued to the clock as I wait for each class to end. The last quarter of the year is not an easy one, but it is not something that we can flake on now. We need to keep in mind that there are only a few weeks left until all of the main worries and stresses are far from our minds as we carry on with our lives in the summer. Even in this dragging time of the year, we do not need to take our right to education for granted. We should grow and value our right to knowledge as best as we can, rather than complain about the school day. While the waves might be screaming your name, just tune them out and remember there are only a few more weeks left.