Haley P., Centerville High School
My Pursuit of Impact
“School isn’t everything” was a phrase I heard almost daily. And whenever someone would say so, I would blatantly shake my head and disagree. This went on for about seven years.
The thing that got me up every morning and kept me striving forward was my constant pursuit of impact. Typical goals like attending a prominent college, pursuing my passion, and, naturally, securing a financially stable career fell under that aggregation of things I deemed to be “successful”. Still, I’ve always been desperate for more. My ultimate goal in life was to achieve something that would help others. Something important. Something with an impact.
To achieve such a feat, I convinced myself that I would have to completely dedicate myself to my education, and would have to somehow “make it big”. Exploits like curing a rare disease, inventing a revolutionary device, or discovering a scientific breakthrough all felt like prerequisites in order to truly make a difference. However, it wasn’t until 2022 when that changed.
When I was in seventh grade, my science teacher assigned my class a chemistry project. The project entailed creating modeling pieces to represent atoms and molecules, so that they could be assembled. Initially, I didn’t think much of the project. I thought that it was as simple and pretentious as cutting out circles and connecting them together. What’s so special about that?
The following day, we began working. Eventually, my teacher had announced that the products were actually going to elementary schools in under-represented communities. It was then, and only then, I saw the project in a completely different light.
As I kept working, I found the project to be fun. Like, actually fun. It wasn’t one of those projects that felt like a box to check off a list. It felt truly enriching, and the enjoyment I gained from it filled me with a sense of fulfillment. That same enjoyment fueled my motivation to persist in completing the project and polishing it to quality.
To conclude the project, my teacher showed us pictures and videos of the young students opening up the kits. It looked as if it was Christmas morning. As I watched the clips of the students fidgeting around with the modeling kits, I could see the glint of curiosity in their eyes. Perhaps, one day, one of them would choose to pursue science themselves.
Then, it hit me. Maybe I don’t have to achieve something major to help others. After all, the project allowed me to contribute to society, all while sitting in a middle school science classroom.
Sure, I didn’t do anything on a global scale, but I still left an impact on those kids. Even if I may not remember how I helped, they will. Impact doesn’t always lie in global feats; it also lies in community. Even though I didn’t “make it big”, I know that I made a difference helping others in my community, while also having an entertaining experience. And to me, that’s all that mattered.
