Human beings almost always crave recognition, appreciation, and understanding from their peers, and allowing one’s thoughts to make themselves apparent is rewarding in the best of ways. Living in a nation and attending a school where I am not afraid to express my opinions have proved themselves to be crucial to my personal ability to achieve self acceptance. How can I truly be content when my thoughts are being kept pent up inside me?
Writing has long shown itself to be a central method of articulating my personal opinions. When something is tugging at my mind, putting it down into words help solidify my emotions into something almost tangible and thus easier for me to comprehend and deal with. Also, when I feel strongly about something, writing about it helps me secure exactly what is I believe until it turns into something that has the power to affect anyone who reads it, including myself.
Not long ago I wrote a letter for the Register regarding the issue of same-sex marriages. Writing about this controversial subject that I was so passionate about and then seeing my words affect the people in our community gave me a sense of validation that I hadn’t felt before. It is a deeply moving feeling to affect someone else and to perhaps help them contemplate issues in a different way than they might have before. The ability to convey one’s thoughts not only gives one, a sense of meaning, but also creates a foundation of confidence and self-acceptance that one can build off of in the years to come.
But the question is: would I have written a letter like that had I not gone to River School? Even had the issue come up while I attended another school, I truly believe that I would not have had the confidence to take the initiative and write it in the first place. River School is about discovering your true potential: it is about realizing who you are and what your abilities are using these for the greater good. The lessons that River School has taught me are the gifts that keep on giving in the truest sense. Never will I forget what my three years at this school have showed me: I have learned about honesty, I have learned about integrity and, most of all, I have learned about myself.