I am beyond grateful for my time at Norwin. I’ve been blessed to receive a great education and I’ve been given so many opportunities to help me in the future. My teachers have always cared about me and pushed me to be my best. Without Norwin, I would not be where I am today. Throughout the years, I have realized that you have to embrace doing the things you love, even if it does not fit the “cool” standard.

I’ve realized that high school spends a lot of time teaching people how to fit in. From the way people dress, to the music they listen to, to what they post online, there is always pressure to follow what everyone else is doing. It can feel like if you are different, people will judge you or think you are weird. But after four years of high school, I think one of the most important lessons I have learned is that being yourself matters so much more than trying to be cool or trying to please everyone else.

For me, being different was never really optional. I am the only member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or more commonly known as Mormon, at my school. Growing up with that has definitely shaped who I am. There were times when I felt out of place because my beliefs and standards were different from the people around me. Sometimes people did not understand why I made certain choices or why some things mattered to me. It would have been a lot easier to just blend in and act like everyone else. High school makes you feel like standing out is a bad thing.

But the older I got, the more I realized that constantly trying to fit in is exhausting. When you spend all your energy trying to impress people, you lose sight of yourself. You start changing the way you act depending on who you are around. You care too much about what people think. And honestly, most of the people you are trying to impress are also insecure and trying to fit in themselves.

One thing that helped me understand this was my family, especially my dad. My dad came to this country as a refugee. He had to leave behind the life he knew and start over completely. I think about that a lot because it reminds me how strong people can be when they believe in themselves. My dad did not build his life by trying to be cool or by following what everyone else wanted him to do. He survived because he worked hard, stayed true to who he was, and did things for himself and his future.

That is something I think a lot of people in high school forget. Everyone wants approval. Everyone wants to be accepted. But if your whole identity depends on other people liking you, then you never really learn who you are. High school only lasts four years. The trends, drama, popularity, and opinions that seem so important right now are temporary. What actually lasts is the person you become. This mindset helped me embrace joining clubs, taking certain classes, and even earning leadership positions.

I think finding yourself and finding your people is way more important than trying to fit into every crowd. Real friends are the people who respect you for who you actually are, not for who you pretend to be. It is better to have a small group of genuine people around you than a huge group of people you constantly have to impress. Once I stopped worrying so much about trying to fit in, I became more confident in myself. I realized I did not need everyone to understand me. I just needed to know who I was.

A lot of students are scared to be themselves because they think being different means being alone. But honestly, pretending to be someone else is lonelier. If you hide the real version of yourself just to make people happy, then nobody actually gets to know you. You end up living for other people instead of yourself.

That is why I think the most important thing you can do in high school is “do it yourself.” Not in a selfish way, but in a way where you stop waiting for validation from everyone else. Build your own confidence. Create your own goals. Decide your own values. Be proud of the things that make you different instead of hiding them.

For me, my faith, my family, and my experiences have made me who I am. Being the only member of my church at school taught me how to stand on my own. My dad’s story taught me resilience and perspective.

At the end of the day, people will always have opinions. Some people will judge you no matter what you do. So you might as well be yourself. The people who are meant to be in your life will respect that. The people who only like you when you change yourself for them were never really your people anyway.

As I get ready to graduate, I’ve realized that the things I worried about freshman year do not matter nearly as much as I thought they did. Nobody remembers who was trying the hardest to look cool. What people remember is authenticity. They remember kindness. They remember confidence. They remember the people who were unapologetically themselves.

High school is not really about becoming the most popular version of yourself. It is about becoming the real version of yourself. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is stop following the crowd and decide to do it yourself.