Austin Siegmund-Broka
Editor-in-Chief
Every Sunday, I get into a frigid pool with a five-year Navy veteran, an old Chinese woman, a gay thirty-something who was just laid off and an afro-sporting basketball player named Christopher.
I am not in the pool entirely of my own volition—I am a P.E. escapee, having avoided the athletics program long enough to require El Camino credit simply so I can graduate. Consequently, every Sunday my classmates and I convene at the pool for three hours of drills and exercises.
Among the 30 of us, however, the most striking character is Jasmine. Jasmine is a bus driver and a single mother, and she weighs about 300 pounds. And yet, every time she is given the chance, Jasmine chooses the hardest workout and the longest distances to swim.
What immediately caught my attention about Jasmine was her willingness to venture far outside of her comfort zone. Jasmine could have chosen any course (such as walking for fitness or water aerobics), but instead she chose to challenge herself with the most intense workouts possible.
I have found that venturing outside of our comfort zones is essential in these last few years of youth. It’s easy in these high school years to slip into a routine, to find a couple things that interest us and slip them in between school days.
Many of us forget that growing and developing is an active process. Contrary to what we’ve often been told, high school is not a place to find oneself, but a place to make oneself. Our identities and life plans will not simply drop into our laps after four years.
Rather, developing as a human being requires the courage to step out of one’s comfort zone and try something new. Perhaps the old aphorism said it best—you don’t know it until you’ve tried it. When we try more new things, whether we reject or accept them into our routines, we consolidate our own identities. As Socrates said, strive to know thyself.
Especially with everything our school has to offer, it would be hard to justify coasting through our high school careers.
Every week, it seems, new clubs are formed and existing ones delve into new projects. Band, orchestra and choir excel in competitions and concerts, ASB organizes a plethora of events for the student population, drama provides engaging theatrical fare through shows and Comedy Sportz matches, and every three weeks a newspaper is published out of room six.
We are all required by law to attend school, so it would be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunities Costa provides. Academic learning is only a portion of our growth here—we also clarify who we are as people and, perhaps more importantly, who we wish to be.
In the end, one’s identity at the end of four years is the sum of every experience one has undertaken. Whether you’re a drama kid, a debate kid or an athlete depends on the experiences you accept and reject.
None of this can happen, however, unless we work up the courage to do something new, something outside our routines. Unless we venture outside our comfortably-planned existences, we cannot examine ourselves in full light.
For every student with room in that schedule for something new, I encourage you to build up your courage and, like Jasmine, to take a step outside your comfort zone. Each of us devotes about 26,000 hours to this place, so it would be a pity to waste them.
Leave a Reply