Angst

As the weeks have become five days long and now slowly drag from break to break, people have become quite hostile. Everyone feels ready for school to end yet it feels like it began yesterday. Seniors anxiously await the arrival of college letters and stress out about what we will do with the rest of our lives. All around the school one can feel the sluggishness of everyone as people drag their feet and keep their heads down going from class to class as to avoid all unnecessary human interaction. This tension has grown into an full on battle as students have turned on one another over something as petty as limited fans at a sporting event, something that would have seemed so trivial in simpler times. This inner school angst reminds me of Tom’s lashing out at Gatsby. Although under very different circumstances, both feel an uneasiness and exhaustion that eventually needs to escape one way or another. I sometimes find myself feeling like Nick; caught in the middle, wanting to lash out about finals or how ready I feel for break, yet also wanting to keep calm and push through until break. An anonymous tweeter put it best by stating that “collectively as a school, we are all slowly losing it right now”. I think that everyone needs to take a step back and breathe. If we all continue to go through the motions with the weight of the world on our shoulders then we will always feel bitter towards one another when we should enjoy our time in high school. If we do not loosen up and realize our good fortune of having the ability to go to school, then we all might actually lose it. If we do not reevaluate our hatred of the world and all things that have to do with school, we may all turn into “mad men” and shoot people we hardly know.