Malvern is a hotbed for trying things out. Don’t blow that.

“It’s sad how many people never reach a fraction of their potential. If we don’t try, we’ve already failed.” – WeeklyChris

I wanted to start this off with a quote from one of my all time favorite philosophers/former Viners, WeeklyChris. But despite the fact that this quote is probably definitely stolen from someone else, it still holds a lot of meaning.

The idea of choosing a career path for me was pretty terrifying. When I was in 8th grade, we had a career awareness class at my middle school where we talked about careers we could be interested in.

I hated this class because I was very content with being a kid and playing Xbox everyday, and I had no idea what I wanted to do.

As the years went on, my fandom for the Philadelphia Eagles grew, and I found myself reading a lot of blogs and articles about the team. Over time, the more I read the more I thought that I could write some of these myself.

I decided to give it a shot. I started by writing a really bad blog about why the Eagles shouldn’t trade up to draft Marcus Mariota. It was pretty bad, but I had some fun doing it.

The following fall I joined the Blackfriar Chronicle. The only thing I wanted to write about was the Eagles or the Sixers; I found out very quickly that wouldn’t be the case, but I stuck with it.

When the time came around to start thinking about a major for college, journalism was the only thing that made sense to me. Having written for the paper for a year, I was ready to decide on this as what I wanted to pursue in college.

Malvern was what really encouraged me to find that.

Everyone will say that this is probably true with most high schools, but I truly believe that Malvern has the unique ability to get its students to step outside their comfort zones and try new things.

Over the course of my Malvern career, I was a part of one sports team (JV B Lacrosse what up), seven theatrical performances, and four different clubs, and I can say with the utmost certainty that I wouldn’t have been as involved as I was at Malvern if I went to my local public high school.

The bottom line is Malvern can help you find your passion if you let it. Some people lock themselves into their comfort zones and don’t ever try something they could be interested in because of the way other people might perceive it. Yeah, don’t do that.

The oldest adolescent stereotype in the book is that high school is the fastest four years of your life, and I can personally attest to that. They’re actually over before you know it, and unless you’re Billy Madison, you only go to high school once. So make the most of it while you can and try new things, because the club you decide to give a shot, might just be what you’re passionate about.