Dear Class of 2015

            Everyday as I walk around campus, I am amazed at just how many people are texting and walking, completely oblivious to their surroundings. Then I reflect upon myself, and realize that I too often succumb to my cell phone while walking to class. It is enthralling to me that in today’s world, we cannot spend a mere four minutes in the fresh air without feeling as though we are missing something urgent in cyberspace. As a society, we fail to realize that what we are missing is right in front of our noses, however. We are missing the chance to smile at a stranger, and possibly set the impetus for a new friendship. We are missing the chance to lend a helping hand to someone in need, and possibly make his or her day. We are missing the chance to interact with one another, because we are too busy sending a trivial text or checking Twitter. Is this really more important than living? Fully living? If everyone in our student body were to simply drop their cell phones where they were, and strike up a conversation with the person they were stalking on Twitter, we would find ourselves forming real relationships with real people. We would find ourselves having real conversations, and making real memories, perhaps. As we spend our time “Direct Messaging” back and forth, however, we are only kidding ourselves. We are engaging in a false sense of contact, and a false, immediate satisfaction that this person is our friend, and will always be there for us; even though, we have only ever met them online. It’s ludicrous.
            As high school comes to a close, we are constantly searching for a way to ensure we won’t regret our last few months. Maybe this can be accomplished through focusing on the now, and living for today. Maybe the push away from technology and towards reflection needs to come from surrounding ourselves with new people and living a life interesting enough to not want to take a vacation in a world of cyberspace. Maybe by taking the time we spend on our cell phones and redirecting it towards pursuing interesting people, traveling interesting places, and simply engaging in interesting conversations, we can build lives that do not require distractions. We can build lives in which we see technology and social media as a needless aberration instead of a way of life. By truly investing in ourselves, instead of our online personas, we will discover the people we are meant to be upon graduation, instead of the people we wish we‘d become.