It is now October and Live Oak High School is all a-bustle with
preparations for this month
’s activities.
It is now October and Live Oak High School is all a-bustle with preparations for this month’s activities.
Live Oak Drama Guild had auditions this last week for its fall play William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and will perform it in December. On Oct. 1, college applications for UCs and CSUs went online and seniors are beginning to feel the pressure build. One of the last chances for seniors to take the SATs is today.
Our busiest week of the year comes in the form of “spirit” week beginning Oct. 11, and our homecoming parade and game on the 15th. Our homecoming dance, the San Francisco Bay Cruise, takes place the week after on the 23rd. And we will begin celebrating Live Oak’s 100th birthday on Saturday, Oct. 30, with the planting of a Live Oak tree on campus at 1pm.
It’s so strange writing about October. September went by so quickly that I don’t even remember what happened. Have we really been in school for six weeks? I guess time flies when you’re busy. There are so many clubs and organizations to be a part of on campus that it is hard to say no. I find myself having to check my agenda every few minutes just to make sure nothing has been forgotten.
I feel like a robot. Every day is the same routine – wake up, go to school, ASB meeting, classes, meeting for drama club, more classes, meeting for centennial events and/or yearbook, even more classes, rehearsal for the fall play, go to work, eat? homework? college applications? sleep?
Everything gets done, but what, in return, is sacrificed? Take sleep for instance. At Live Oak there are more textbooks being drooled on than being read.
Then there is the whole concept of eating. Some days there just isn’t time. With meetings at brunch and lunch plus after-school events, food is not a high priority. Sleep and nourishment are necessary to live, but we all know that colleges do not want to hear about your ability to catch some zzzs or munch on a sandwich. Colleges want to hear about well-rounded students who, while maintaining a perfect GPA in honors and AP classes, still manage to be involved in athletics, clubs and community.
The competition is excruciating. Almost all the seniors I know are planning to go to college. With the application process just starting we are all trying to better ourselves by joining clubs, trying out for sports or auditioning for plays. Each senior is desperately trying to make themselves stand out so that in April they might get the thick, “Congratulations!” letter as opposed to the thin, “Thank you for applying bu …” letter.
The thing is, we are all playing the same sports and joining the same clubs. So by trying to become the “individuals” we think the colleges want us to be, we have actually become the cookie-cutter version of our former selves. We come in different shapes and sizes but in the end we are all made from the same dough, baked in the same oven and all go into the same jar and from that we are picked.
When all is said and done, have we actually sacrificed our individuality?
Megan Hamilton is a Live Oak senior, in charge of LO’s 100th centennial celebration, editor-in-chief of the yearbook, active member and publicity officer of the drama club. She writes the weekly Associated Student Body column, alternating with Lauren Devine, Elicia Perkins and Jessica Towner and Katie Kenyon. Megan can be reached at ed******@*************es.com
