The holidays are the time of year to be thankful for what we have, and what we all have in common and should be thankful for is our school. With its longstanding reputation for excellence in many areas, Grady is a cultural melting pot that offers each student numerous opportunities for advancement and enrichment. Unfortunately, we often do not take advantage of the educational opportunities presented to us as students. Instead, we see special events as chances to skip class, take a nap or stay home. Grady provides us with career speakers, trips to museums and plays, academy partnerships with local businesses and college advising services, all of which are usually overlooked, under-appreciated or poorly attended.
While some of the extracurricular opportunities that Grady offers are better than others and while not every event may be vitally essential, many students
almost immediately jump to the assumption that the assembly or field trip does not pose any benefit to them. If we do not give these opportunities a chance, how can we ever hope to reap any of their potential benefits? If students do not participate in these opportunities, how effective can they really be? Increased participation would make them better for all of us.
Failure to recognize the importance of these opportunities outside of the traditional classroom curriculum can have negative consequences. One reason the unique student-teacher internship program at Grady was eliminated was because students and teachers did not take it seriously. Students exploited the program for their own purposes while teachers passively allowed it to happen. The loss of the internship program is lamentable because the program gave students the opportunity to experience certain aspects of potential careers at school while still taking other classes.
If we are not appreciative of the opportunities our school grants us, we will lose them. By taking advantage of the varied extracurricular events and activi-
ties at Grady, we further our knowledge of the world around us and therefore our ability to succeed in that world. An opportunity, whether educational or
not, is only what you make it. It is up to us to turn our campus of opportunity into one of realized potential.