I started high school in the middle of both COVID-19 and a two-year stint in Newberg. I first entered through a computer, where I began each day lightly sleeping through half my classes before skipping the rest. Of every teacher I had that year, I genuinely – as hard as I try – can’t remember more than two by name, or a single thing we did in class. 

My life was solely focused on waking up and doing as little as I possibly could for school before skating till dark and sneaking out to do activities we can’t publish in a student newspaper into the early morning. In many respects, it was a bizarre, dream-like, hazy year of wasted time I can only vaguely recall.

It was in the mindset of this year that I expected to spend the rest of high school, completely detached, unmotivated and depressed; but now, four years later, I feel like I’ve become almost a different person, with entirely transformed motives, goals and perspective.

This shift literally changed my (so far very short) life, and as much as I would like to credit it to my individual willpower, the responsibility lies mostly in the resources, influence and structure provided to me by my amazing friends and this amazing school.

I moved back to Tualatin after freshman year with little to no expectations, save those built from disparate stories I heard through others and a particularly scathing student speech I remember at my sister’s 2016 graduation. But in my sophomore year, Tualatin High School flipped my conception of school from a compulsory obligation to get around, to a valuable tool and community I not only could have a good time at, but could also use as a means to prepare for the next chapter of life.

Teachers here have cared about me, as an individual, along with every other student in my classes, in a way that feels both incredible and upsetting, as I feel completely unable to repay them or fully show my gratitude for their non-transactional kindness.

In fact, kindness seems to be, in many respects, the foundation of this school. The cherry blossoms outside, trees lining the front walkway and walls littered with student murals embody the virtue like the counselors who do their best to help you in whatever way they can, students who are thoughtful and considerate with their peers and aforementioned teachers performing a thankless but crucial job in a loving and non-repayable way.

This isn’t even to mention my friends, who have given me such a level of community and love over the last three years that I can’t begin writing about it in a format as limiting as this.

As much as we may dislike Tualatin, or high school in general, and as boring as it can be to sit through classes I don’t want to take, I can confidently say it has been my wonderful friends and this unique environment of kindness that pulled me from giving up entirely, and pushed me into trying to achieve a future and goals I want.