2016 Senior Essay Finalist: Randy Wentworth

North Attleboro High School has contributed several aspects to my life that I am forever grateful for. I have gained friendships that will last a lifetime, experiences with some of the best teachers, knowledge stemming from a myriad of classes, and an opportunity to join some of the most interesting clubs and sports teams available. Although the stresses of AP classes, swim practices and meets, and other clubs like Math League and Model Senate may have been overwhelming, I would not have wanted it any other way. By participating in so many of the given opportunities presented by NAHS, I was able to form strong bonds with others and learn more than I could ever imagine about all these different activities and about myself. The most valuable lesson that I learned, however, was how to fail.

            Failure may, at first, seem like a scary word, but I am able to accept it for the blessing that it is. Before high school, life seemed almost like a cakewalk. All these participation awards and straight A’s in elementary and middle school made me feel practically invincible. It really was not until high school when I finally tasted a dose of reality. I failed here, and I failed a lot. I ran for a class officer position on three separate occasions, and failed all three times. I got cut from the baseball team not once, but twice. I lost our freshman football team the most important game of season against our rival, Attleboro. I got rejected by my top college, and like any other teenage boy, I had my fair share of woes with romantic relationships. After each and every one of these failures, I thought that my life was over and that I could never be successful. However, I realized that I needed to use these failures as motivation to succeed because in real life, there are no participation awards, and I would need to work hard to get where I wanted to be. This helped me to bounce back and achieve success in other areas such as becoming the captain of the swim team, getting into the honors program at a college, and getting elected as a representative for Student Government Day. Although these achievements dawned happiness and pride onto me, I still managed to fail in some aspects of life no matter how hard I worked. If I worked so hard, then what was the cause for this? What was the reason? How could I make sense of this? The answer to these questions is actually fairly simple; it happens. In life, failure is bound to find everybody at some point or another, yet here I am still standing tall and speaking in front of all these fine scholars, and we are all about to graduate high school.

Some typical speakers may say that they see future doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc. before them here today, and whether this is true or not, this is not what I see. Our class will not be defined by our job titles, our successes or achievements, and, most importantly, our failures. Instead, we will be recognised for how we are as people. We will be remembered for our caring actions toward friends and strangers, our unique jokes that would make the room erupt into laughter, our debates that would challenge each other and open up our minds, and our great times together. As we move from this steppingstone onto the next chapter in our lives, I would like to finish by saying that you should  never lose yourself in your successes or in your failures, no matter how minute or grand, because the most important and valuable asset that you can contribute to others is being your own genuine self.