As Fred Rogers, better known as Mister Rogers, said in his Emmy Lifetime Achievement award acceptance speech, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds, to think of the people who helped you become who you are; those who have cared about you, and wanted what was best for you in life. 10 seconds of silence. I’ll watch the time.”

After the 10 seconds of silence was over, Rogers added, “Whoever you’ve been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they’ve made.”

And at this point in my school high tenure, I can’t help but to feel that this last month or so my mind has been in a continual and perpetual state of gratitude and increased nostalgia.

Whether I reflect upon my second grade teacher, who I drew comic strips and wrote stories for, and who always commended my work and told me to stick with my passions, or all of the girls I’ve ever fallen for, some who have fallen simultaneously alongside me, and others who were so put off by my affection that they found my admiration laughable or straight-up creepy. I even reflect on my freshman English teacher who was so quirky and free-wheeling in her methods that she allowed me to feel comfortable being myself no matter how erroneous I could be. High school has had its fair shares of peaks and troughs. But the real question is, what makes my high school experience so unique?

That’s truly hard to answer. Yes, while I’ve been written about in Rolling Stone, and gone to NSAA state journalism twice, I question the impact I will leave on Westside, and even the greater Omaha area. All of my success, to me, feels like it will come at a future date that I’m completely unsure of. Alexander Payne didn’t even really become Omaha’s prodigal son until after his second movie Election, and Warren Buffett didn’t become truly famous until he purchased Salomon Inc. in 1987 at the age of 47. Will I have to wait until I am 38 or 47 to start having impact, or to create my magnum opus? I suppose high school has taught me a lot, and to criticize my high school education at this point seems clichéd and hackneyed. But if I wish I knew one thing almost four years ago, it would be that my success more than likely won’t come to me immediately. Yes, I knew that once I left this glorious school I would have to work hard and put forth the effort to be successful. I don’t want to be another workaday parent who hates his life and subsequently his kids, or a teacher who becomes a teacher solely to rewrite history and pretend (and act) like they are in high school all over again. I don’t want to leave this world unscathed, I want to leave my mark everywhere humanly possible, in proud, bold and big letters.

Penultimately I must thank all of my friends (they know who they are) who stuck with me and my most ugly and at my most beautiful during my entire school career, whether I was only friends with them for a week, or years on end, their constant source of guiding light and enthusiasm has shaped me into the person I am today. And the same goes for all of my teachers, mentors, and other adult figures in my life.

For now I can only hope in this current and final year of school that my name stands out amongst the others when heard by all my fellow students, either for reasons bad or good, because in ten, twenty, or thirty years (hopefully it doesn’t take that long) when I accept my Oscar, or Pulitzer Prize, or whatever honor I hopefully can have bestowed upon myself, I want everyone who has done me wrong, and everyone who I thought about during those ten seconds of silence to see my name and feel something stirring deep inside their hearts and souls.