I don’t know what to say. The school year came to a screeching halt and everyone on the bus was left reeling. It’s weird not knowing to say or how to react when the people you’ve spent everyday with now become like distant memories. I guess that’s what happens when all of life comes to a stand-still. What is your last memory of being at school? Is it good? Why? What emotion does the thought leave in you? For me, I remember sitting in the Phoenix and playing Monopoly with some pals and arguing with them about whether or not one of them should trade with another friend. It was my first time playing monopoly in years. Despite losing, I remember feeling complete in the moment, content in the most subtle way. Grades and homework and stress honestly melted away as we sat there, trapped in a frame of mortality, arguing about fake money.
There’s a movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, that I adore. Although it portrays mental illness in an odd way, I still say that it is one of my favorite movies. A specific line in the movie is “We were infinite.” It’s a very popular line, everyone knows it. Every edgy teen girl on Tumblr had it in their bio in 2012. It’s a very well-known line. And I think that’s because everyone wants to feel infinite. Everyone wants to do something that makes them so happy, so fulfilled, that the expanse of time seems to slow down and the enjoyable stay so for a little bit longer. Well, in our little world of MSA, every person, every moment, is infinite. The smell of grits, the lack of salt, the echoing warm-ups of the theatres and vocals alike. The hallway in JI at night, the stairs after lunch, the nonstop chatter of the dinner crowd, the wait for the elevator as it stops in every. single. floor. That is MSA, in all of it’s glory and downfall. In all of it’s neverendingness.
I say all of that to come to this: Thank you. Thank you to the literaries for always making the struggles a lot less of a struggle. Thank you to the seniors for being honest and patient. Thank you to the teachers for sometimes believing in us more than we believe in ourselves. Thank you to the administration for giving us the room to be ourselves in a world that mutes those with which it does not agree. And finally, thank you to MSA as a whole for making our little chunk of land infinite.
