All districts — A highlight of this year’s Listen. Learn. Lead. event was the personal contributions shared by several members of Kent ISD’s Student Leadership Community.
Through video, poetry, art and music, the high-school students used multiple creative mediums to share the challenges and opportunities they’ve experienced at school with an audience of about 300 parents, school leaders and community members at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
“A lot of students might not feel very comfortable in just speaking a monologue story in front of a crowd of people, and a lot of people — students especially — find comfort in making more artistic expressions rather than very analytical and formal ones, like a speech,” said Brandon McCullough, a senior at Kent City and member of the Student Leadership Community. “It was amazing to see the artwork and the poems and the music, and just all of these factors that are able to contribute to the overall meaning.”
Music
Freshman Coco Jawad and junior Grayson Sikkema, both of whom attend West Michigan Aviation Academy, presented music selections.
“People find solace and peace in many different things,” Coco said. “Some enjoy reading, some love to knit and some people, like me, find that music grounds them and makes them feel at home like nothing else.
“The reason why I decided to play the piano (is) because this event is about things that are important to us as students individually, and this, in my opinion, is the best thing students can do for themselves: find a hobby that makes them feel as at home as I do at my piano.”
Art
Sofia Barajas-Gutierrez, a junior at Wyoming High School, said she selected art because it is “representative of who I am and it’s a way for me to express my own identity.
“I wanted to represent something that resonated with me, but could also be related to every single student in this group,” Sofia said. “Everyone here is a secondary school student and all of us have the goal to graduate.”
There is a belief that after students graduate high school what they did there is only a faint shadow of who they once were. But that’s not true, she said.
“Every single student in this room is going to be great,” Sofia said. “They’re going to impact tomorrow just as they do today, and I wanted to capture that throughout my artwork.”
Video
Dominik Ladomato-Fisher, a junior at Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy, and Annet Lopez-Pinedo, a senior at Godwin Heights, created day-in-the-life videos showcasing what high school is like for them.
Annet said she wanted to show what students do every day.
“It’s not the same routine for everyone, but we all have busy lives,” she said.
While high school may be different for every student, many deal with stress over the “tower of homework,” hectic schedules, and not getting enough sleep, Annet said.
“As busy as we are, we still manage to get up in the morning and start a new day full of activities,” she said.
Poetry
Zoee Randall, a junior at Kent City High School, said she chose to write a poem because “words have always held an importance to me beyond their standard meanings.”
“My goal as a daughter and student isn’t to give you directions or ideas of how to better the education system, but instead to hopefully inspire ideas of your own on how to help,” she said to those in attendance.
What’s Left, by Zoee Randall
Being in high school is supposed to be the best time of our lives.
Growing up, we’re told not to rush, that time will pass within the blink of an eye, that before we know it, we’ll be adults, wishing we could be young again.
For the longest time, I believed this; we all believed this.
The idea that our lives would be bright and filled with fun as we went through high school was a bittersweet tale we all believed.
Instead, the moment I turned 14, I got a job, I started going to college, and I joined so many clubs and extracurriculars that I can hardly remember them all anymore.
So many of us, so many teens, we wake up before dawn to go to a school that consistently challenges our resolve.
Despite the obstacles we’re faced with, we continue to smile and talk in the halls as the mountains of homework grow taller and steeper every minute.
When the day is over, and it is finally time to rest, we go to work, or we go to practice for a sport that breaks us down mentally and physically.
I can’t remember the last time I went to bed before midnight. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t spend so many hours into the night doing homework and lesson upon lesson while my parents slept soundly down the hall.
We constantly work and train and cram, hoping it will be enough, dreaming of the day when we are set free to choose our own paths.
Because it’s not our choice, sure, we can say yes or no —
But we have expectations, standards, and ideals we have to meet, designed by our parents and our teachers.
We’re supposed to be brilliant and strong; we’re supposed to surpass and overcome every hurdle that we face.
But what’s left?
What are we left with after everything we do to succeed?
What’s left for us?
For me, what’s left is 10 alarms to wake up in the morning.
What’s left is showering 9 minutes before I’m supposed to leave because my legs couldn’t carry me to the shower the night before.
What’s left is fighting for 8 hours to stay awake, to stay happy, and to stay brilliant.
What’s left is 7-hour shifts at work, remembering all I have to do when I get home at 9:30 at night.
What’s left are 6 friends that I have to show up for. Making the time to hang out and be a fun person to be around.
What’s left is 5 classes to stay on top of, keeping my grades up so I can afford to go to college with my family’s small income.
What’s left is 4 hours of sleep, trying to make it enough, stretching every minute a little longer before the cycle starts over.
What’s left is 3 balanced meals a day, trying to make time, yet always failing and having to ignore the emptiness in my stomach.
What’s left is 2 parents, confused and concerned as to why they never see their child anymore, frustrated that I’m getting home so late and never leaving the house on time.
What’s left is 1 teenager, burnt out and lonely, because it feels like no one understands what it is to be a young adult in high school.
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