650 Words

Simone Tift is a member of the great class of 2016 -- the members of which, collectively, have written more posts than any other class on the 650 blog. Since this is a forum for advice, here’s mine: listen to Simone. I have known her for a few years, and she has always impressed me with her genuine and positive approach to learning and life. When someone grounded in happiness like Simone wants to give some modest advice, it seems like a good idea to listen. Simone gears her post towards the college process in particular, but what she talks about here feels like a guide to living a happy and purposeful life. She focuses on our tendency to compare ourselves to others, and I am reminded of the three-part quotation that I always write on the board when my classes study transcendentalism: “You are not who you think you are. You are not who I think you are. You are who you think I think you are” -- the idea being that if you have a fuzzy notion of who you are, you are more likely...

Sammy Rodriguez graduated from high school in 2014. He integrated himself into the school community by playing sports, joining the orchestra, and “going with the flow in classes and in relationships.” Still, he always felt like he was looking at his school experience through a different lens. I know a little about what he is talking about. While I recognize that my kids come from significant privilege, and that privilege is an entirely relative term, Gabe, Jula, and Billy found out right away that many of their classmates came from different worlds. They lived in enormous homes. They went on magnificent vacations. They bought what they wanted at the mall. Again, I don’t mean to suggest that my kids were significantly disadvantaged. They just needed to learn how to conduct themselves in a world of extreme wealth. Sammy writes about how he navigated through that world here. Sammy attended Seattle University, where he received a BS in Sports and Exercise Science last year. He loved th...

This one is hard to read.   Wolf Recht graduated from high school in 2016, an experience he describes as "confusing." When he left for college, things got even more confusing. Wolf attended Cal Poly SLO for two years where he mostly took coursework in Forestry and Landscape Architecture. After dropping out of college due to his difficulty managing a "hazily diagnosed" mental illness (he is quoted), which most closely resembled bipolar disorder, he worked odd jobs like welding, landscaping, and tree care. After a series of run-ins with the law, he began working very intentionally on sobriety starting in October of 2018. Wolf's story is harrowing. He went from a super intellectual kid in my AP Language class to a young man fighting for his life. "My post," he said, "is a brief description of my struggle with mental illness and substance abuse, its possible causes and its tangible consequences." - C.H. Before I begin, I...