Dear Senior Class,
In two weeks we’ll have senior retreat, and before we know it, our four years at JC will be over. It’s scary or exciting, depending on how you choose to face the future, but the fact remains that we don’t have much time left.
Senior retreat provides the graduating class an opportunity to really shine and bond as a class. Students from previous classes have told me that if everyone opens up or at least gives respect to those who choose to share their stories, the retreat can be an incredible experience. After hearing stories from some friends in the class of ’10, I hope that ours can be just as awesome.
We’ve come together on occasion, such as when we won Powderpuff (junior and senior year) and celebrated getting our class rings. Memories like these prove that we have the potential to finish our JC careers on a positive note with senior retreat and prom.
Unfortunately, there’s a small group of seniors whose rude and immature behavior often overshadows the rest of the class. This behavior sometimes results in everyone’s loss of privileges or at least a negative reputation seen by the rest of the school. I recently had a conversation with a teacher about the upcoming retreat, and she told me she’s nervous that this specific group will negatively impact the entire class.
Bel Air Police Chief Leo Matrangola, Criminal Defense Attorney Augustus Brown, and Mark O’Brien, class of ’01, took time out of their busy schedules to speak with our class last week about a serious topic—the law. As teenagers, we all feel invincible at times, but unfortunately, we’re not—and these three men came to inform us of the consequences of our decisions.
While some of us were sincere in the questions we asked and the comments we made during the assembly, others embarrassed the entire class with obnoxious behavior. To be fair, I’ll admit that unlike the majority of the class, I had already heard O’Brien’s tragic story, so I knew what to expect.
Still, our class’s disruptive behavior was inexcusable. It was so awful that O’Brien had to pause in the middle and ask us to let him continue. Some students clapped during the story and made other comments, only to realize that the story ended in a tragedy. Maybe we didn’t see a tragic story coming, but what else did you expect— a story about the awesomeness of senior week?
If I were O’Brien, I would never want to come back and speak again. I truly hope that our class’s behavior doesn’t stop him from sharing his story, a story that contains such a powerful message that our actions affect others.
That being said, our behavior as a whole improved the next day during the honors assembly. I thank everyone for staying silent at least during the presentation on Black History Month. I can’t speak for the students who presented, but I know if I were up there, the least I’d hope for from my peers is some respect.
No one in our class is a bad person, but some people are self-centered and lack self-control. We all need to think about how our attitudes and behavior can and do affect the rest of the seniors.
Everyone in our class has such amazing potential, whether it’s academics, music, athletics, art, or something else. So let’s make the most of our senior retreat, prom, and the rest of the school year so that when June 5 comes, we’ll know that we came together to make these four years at JC the best they could be.
Jenny Hottle is the online chief for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.