Take time to appreciate the people in your life

It is a fact: high school students are busy people.  We have sports, musicals, clubs, jobs, volunteer activities, music lessons, homework, college applications, standardized tests, and more to do at the end of the day.

Our busy days make it difficult to really appreciate the people around us, those who support us, love us, and make an imprint on our lives. All the time we do not realize that during the next day, someone could be missing from our lives.

It is a cold, frightening idea that someone we know could be gone, but it is the truth.  Most of us do not want to confront the idea and instead ignore it, but whether we choose to think about it or not, it is still there.

I pass the memorial for Clark Wright and Sarah Streicher by 100 hall and remember that each person was someone’s classmate, someone’s friend.  I think of Jonathan Johnson, a recent CVHS graduate who died in a car crash in 2010, or Leneasha Northington who was fatally shot this year.  Their friends and teachers never imagined that life would have ended so shortly for them.

When was the last time we took a moment to just think of all of our old elementary school or middle school friends that we lost touch with?  How would we feel if the person we grew up with was here one day and gone the next?

Time is precious to us in our hectic lives, but taking a moment to say thanks for the friends in our lives and to remember the people that have a place in our hearts is more important than a moment on the go.