Student Voices: Hopes and Fears

At a recent Monday morning meeting, Wyatt Amos, a junior from London, shared these thoughts during a Moment of Silence.

Over the past couple of weeks, fear has run through me. It was the only feeling I had when I woke up and when I went to bed. I was panicking, with swim season around the corner and the first half of my junior year ending. The mistakes I have made this year have been unlike any other; whether it has to do with my social life or an academic aspect, I feel as though I've made every wrong turn. My friends and family could see the effect it was having on me, and my older sister Edie wrote me a brief letter that said, “Life has a funny way of working itself out. If it was meant to happen, it will happen. Remember to trust the process and to always outweigh the fears with the hopes.” 

This idea that “if it was meant to happen, then let it happen” confused me, until I realized the amount of knowledge I have gained from these mistakes. This knowledge will allow me to have these problems never happen again or learn how to work around them calmly and confidently, not letting it be an all-or-nothing situation. 

People are always trying to escape the things they fear most but never have time to stop and take a breath. Having my fears catch up to me and finally take me down caused a more significant situation. I realized that you can't have one without the other. Edie didn't just tell me to stay hopeful but to accept what has happened and to outweigh it with my hopes for the future. 

Only you can choose if you want to keep running, but sometimes it is better to stop, turn around, and face what is chasing you. Your hopes throughout life will carry you to wherever you want to go, but you don't want to be caught off guard when one slight fear catches up to you. Remember, our fears are what make us think of the hopes big enough to get to the places we want to be.

I know our seniors just applied to college, and our first-year students are well into their second semester at NMH. I'm sure many of us are worried about the mistakes we have made throughout this time, big or small. But remember that “if it was meant to happen, then let it happen,” and always outweigh the fears with the hopes.