Vinay, 17

Freshman year for the class of 2010 was not a thrilling year. In between losing the spirit competition and dealing with all new high school troubles, our premature minds were in no mood to look at the big picture. For Vinay, however, the best memories from his high school experience were rooted in the confusion that high school brought us.

As the class of 2010 student council president from the years 2006-2007, Vinay did not know what he was getting into. “I thought it would be fun in terms of spirit and planning different outings for the class, but later on I realized it was a lot more than that,” he said.

Despite the fact that high school flooded our freshman minds with an entirely new lifestyle, Vinay appreciated the struggle of learning the nuances of the upper school life with the rest of his class.

“I think throughout my experience as president I was able to probably meet everybody who I had not known before in my class and work with them on a some level, whether that be for a spirit rally or for a fundraiser. That was probably part of the reason that I can actually say I can relate to almost everybody in our class and I think that is just because I was able to connect to them through that position. That was one of the things I really liked during the role kind of looking back on it.”

It may not have been the most successful year for our class’ pride (what with reconstructing star wars themed homecoming booths), but for Vinay, “some of my best memories I have from high school are probably from freshman year, just based on how much fun I had working with people–a lot of it had to do with what I had to do in student council.”

Life Moral: Passion can heavily impact a person through his or her life. High school should be a time to explore different pursuits until that passion is found. Vinay found that drive in student council and said, “A lot of people do it for the title, just for being able to say that I did this, this, and this…I feel I got so much more out of it–that’s why I’ve consistently wanted to be on student council. I just think that probably shaped the way my personality is and shaped my goals and [plans]I have for the future.”