When we were grammar school students, we all looked at high school as the place where people go from looking up to the “big kids” to being “one of the “big kids.” The title “young adult” would be given to us as we walked through those high school doors and left grammar school behind. However, we all had to remember that if we were going to be treated as young adults, we had to start acting like them. This meant being responsible, organized, mature, and putting serious thought towards what we would want to do after high school.

Of course, it is up to us to make these decisions as we grow up and become more independent, however, these are hard decisions to make. We are all still teenagers, and we are not expected to know exactly what we want. This is where electives offered in high school can help us in our decision-making process. The purpose of electives is to have students choose any subject that interests them, or to try out different types of study until they find the one in which they are most content. The knowledge gained in these high school courses can greatly influence career choices later in life. There are several high schools that offer electives such as cosmetology, photography, fashion marketing and design, psychology, and much more. Some schools even offer the opportunity for interested students to be an apprentice in a given field.

Why can’t NAHS be one of the high schools which offer a wide variety of electives that help us find who we are and what we want? A more varied course selection would be very beneficial to us as students, as we are getting ready to walk into the real world. With some experience in our teenage years, we will not leave high school befuddled and confused, but rather with a fully-formed concept of what we want our lives to be like as adults. Although we are a small secondary school, perhaps in the near future NAHS might consider having a wide variety of electives available for students to choose from throughout their four years of high school.