This title is somewhat misleading. I’m not really a Horizon dropout, of course, but things definitely did not go as planned in my senior year, which I believe gives me all the more reason to write this letter. My experience in Horizon was not one that followed a “normal” path. In my freshman year, in a half-empty school, behind a computer screen, I was made a section editor, a role that I was not entirely sure how to do. This was initially a stressful position, but over time, I found it helped me to grow in ways I never would have expected. During my freshman year, I was given the chance to strengthen my editing and reporting skills early on in my career, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had these opportunities. I also found that Horizon itself grounded me with my love of writing. I wrote about topics I cared about, or topics that made an impact. It was freeing to use my passion for writing in these ways.
I continued to hold a position on the staff in my sophomore and junior year, each new role allowing me to expand and strengthen my abilities. By the end of junior year, I was more passionate about Horizon than ever before. Then, I was named Driftstone editor-in-chief. I understand that any editor-in-chief role is one that is sought after, but to me, when I looked at Driftstone, I saw a blank wall. I love poetry, and I love creativity, but when I saw my senior year at Horizon, I saw the editor-in-chiefs of past years, running the club and being the leaders I looked up to. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do all I wanted to do with Driftstone, and be that role model for the other members of the club. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried in my senior year, Driftstone continuously fell flat. For a long time, this hurt me. I felt like a failure for no longer being able to do something I loved so much. Try as I might, Driftstone still hasn’t put out an edition this year, and I don’t think we will be able to. This was not how I pictured my final year with Horizon. I’ll be the first to admit that it really did not work in the ways that I had hoped, and I’m just now starting to believe that this is ok. I spent a long time in my senior year speculating on what I could do to improve Driftstone, and I started to lose my passion for it.
Horizon has an expansive, talented, staff of writers and editors, photographers and artists, and I would hate to see any of them suffer the same fate. So, I decided to try my best and do all I could with Horizon, despite the lack of poetry for Driftstone. Much like my freshman year, I found, when I set aside my stress, my passion for writing grew again. There are many things I wish I could have done differently this year, but I know I did all that I could, and that is what matters. I believe that’s all anyone can do. Things don’t always go as planned, and a big part of life is navigating through obstacles you never wanted blocking you, but that is a big part of the fun of life too. You never know what you’ll accomplish if you do all that you can, and I encourage everyone to give Horizon and life their all in their senior year, even if it doesn’t go as planned.
