Listening, hearing, learning: the Holly Spirit class of 2023 signs off

To think that, at one point in time, I did everything I could to avoid going to school may seem shocking because if you talk to me, you very well know that I am begrudgingly counting down the days until graduation. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that everything will fall into place, even when I thought that I wouldn’t make it through high school. While I was constantly anxious, I too...

The Holly Spirit was one of those clubs I joined simply because all my friends were joining it. Writing had never been one of my fortes so going into this I thought it would be one of my many phases. Little did I know, this club helped me create some of the pieces of work I have been most proud of in my time at RV. My experience with this club can best be described as an unforeseen blessing. Do you ...

Growing up, I had always looked to reading as an escape to worlds crafted by others in order to evade reality. But, we live in a real-world plagued by real issues and vexed by real questions. I was angered and I was enraged. I truly was at the peak of teenage angst: mad at the world and silenced by it. It was the end of my sophomore year and I had yet to find a place at RV that allowed me the conne...

I remember the first thing I thought about RV was “Oh my god, that place is enormous.” I told my parents I might as well be going to college with a school that big. In my eyes, you could have fit stadiums into that school. I felt like a speck of sand on a beach and it seemed too large to ever feel important in. Now, I’m on my way to a college much larger than RV, feeling more seen than I e...

The Holly Spirit became my forum to launch my personal vendetta against diet culture and mental health stigma.  In April of sophomore year, in the midst of online school, I decided it was my mission to spread my message about the harmful effects of dieting. Without planning what I would write beyond this single article and with only about two months left in the year’s paper, I emailed Sherm to j...

If you were to tell me I’d be part of a writing based club and hold an editor position, I’d look at you like you’re crazy. Since freshman year I’ve despised writing. I hated sitting behind the keyboard banging my head trying to write my thoughts or ideas of paper. I’m still not sure how I was convinced to join The Holly Spirit, but all I can say is that it has been one of the best experi...

From the very beginning all of my decisions have been last minute and my choice to go to RV was no exception. When asked why I had no response I just knew I belonged here, I felt the same with The Holly Spirit. When I went to my first Holly Spirit interest meeting I remember thinking, “No way in hell, I suck at writing.” I was weary at first but Mrs. Sherman’s reassuring words swayed me. To be...

At the beginning of my senior year, I set a goal for myself: to make my final year of high school the “Year of Yes.” My very first action as part of this promise was to join the school newspaper, something that I had been aware of yet steadfastly avoiding since Freshman year. I have been told my whole life that I’m a “good writer,” but I didn’t feel I was nearly good enough to be publis...

Sometimes, I catch myself thinking back to my freshman year, when I was an anxious 14 year old determined to not stick out. Fortunately for me (and perhaps unfortunately, to those who would become my friends), I ditched this way of thinking as COVID rolled around. Joining clubs was a gargantuan task, and one I mostly put off. I didn’t join the Holly Spirit until my junior year and I was delega...

I’ve always been good at slipping through the cracks – going quietly unnoticed as I pursue my interests and struggle to find a place in the future. Since freshman year I’ve grown more expressive, my passions more deeply rooted and explored, and even more unapologetically awkward. Communicating with other people without stumbling never got easier during high school, but the Holly Spirit gave me th...