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Miles Jorgensen

Dr. Preston

AP English & Literature

8 June 2015

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As I entered my final year of high school I was kind of preparing myself to be lazy and passive. The whole senioritis thing was settling in and I was happy to only have four classes. That all changed quickly when I was introduced to open source learning and how the curriculum could be based around your personal interests. It got me excited to craft my own type of rules and guidelines to a class and make it my own. Having a blog was a pretty cool thing for me to design myself and make unique.

            Outside of the school aspect, senior year was exciting for many other reasons, mostly for sports. Along with the rest of my teammates, we were determined to win CIF for water polo. We practiced hard every day for hours on end all to achieve the greatest title we could imagine. I remember how I felt as the season was going on. I would have dreams about playing in CIF and I would get so nervous that I would wake up and would be unable to fall back asleep again. Water polo was pretty much the ultimate passion I had at the beginning of the year. I knew in the back of my head that it would all be over in a matter of months, but the grind and rigorous work load kept me distracted. I remember giving announcements in Mr. Nesper’s class about the games we were going to have for league so people could see how good of a team we were and how much work we put into the program. The sad thing was that not a whole lot of people would go to the games. It was mainly parents and friends or former players from the

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program. I think what made water polo such a cool sport to be a part of was the fact that it was so exclusive and different. Not a lot of people know how to play water polo or even what the sport is, and it felt like I was part of some exclusive club.

When league was over for water polo, our coaches started preparing us for the playoffs and tried to keep us calm and focused. We had just won the league title and went undefeated throughout all of league so we were feeling pretty confident and maybe even a little arrogant. Personally, I was nervous about how delicate the situation of CIF was. In my head I was thinking ‘If we lose just one game, we’re done. Like, done.’ But many of my teammates just thought, ‘Four more games until we’re CIF champs.’ I had to contain my fear and pessimism so I wouldn’t infect anyone else. As the CIF rounds went by, however, the team was doing fantastically. Our closest game was by a matter of about ten points, which is a lot for a water polo game. Finally, we made it to the championships and we we’re all healthy, focused, and ready. Just thinking about that game makes my heart race. My coach told me that I was going to get some important play time and that I had to be ready to go. I wasn’t a starter, but my coach relied heavily upon me and the rest of the nonstarters to bring high energy and strong defensive play when we got in to give the starters a break. I remember playing a good amount that game and even making some good defensive and offensive plays. The game ended in overtime and we were victorious. Everyone leaped into the pool, pushing the coaches in as well. It was one of the happiest moments in my life. Hugging all my brothers in the water, cheering and crying in joy. And to do it all in front of friends and family in the stands to have them enjoy the moment with us felt absolutely incredible. To accomplish something that great that you dedicated four years of

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your life into was too awesome for words. It was perhaps the happiest day of my life. Water polo taught me that if you put in the effort, time, work, heart, and passion, nothing can stop you. Our program was strong because we had players that were passionate about the sport and they ALL gave the effort the coaches demanded. I learned that you need to always respect your opponent and make personal sacrifices to provide for something greater.  I learned that you have to be on time, prepared, and focused if you want to be productive and make progress. Water polo taught me a lot about self-discipline and honesty as well. Throughout this year, I think that water polo has probably been the biggest thing that changed me.

            When water polo ended, I no longer had this driving passion pushing me to make personal sacrifices to give to a greater good. Then we had to film a short scene for our English class. We wanted to make it funny and creative, so we ended up spending way more time making it than was necessary, but we had a lot of fun doing it. In the midst of all the filming and editing, we some of us discovered that since we had such a passion about making this short little film, we could do more things like this for our masterpiece. So that’s what we did. Filming and acting for the videos we made was really, fun, but also time consuming. I also realized how difficult it could be to come up with some interesting or funny story line and make it all make sense in the mind of the audience. In the end, when I finished the videos with my friends, I was elated to show them to the rest of the class. I thought that if I had spent so much time and had so much fun making these videos, it would show by the content and people would enjoy it. When I presented our videos, hearing the laughs and chuckles from the class made me incredibly happy. I wasn’t entirely happy because I got to show off what I did, I was happy that people got joy from the content I provided. To know that I was the one who provided someone with the pleasurable

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feeling of laughter or happiness was a feeling I never quite felt with such intensity. It really made me realize how much of a passion I have for the things I do to make people happy. Whether it be a funny video or a funny story, I was happy to have found one of my passions through school of all things. Open source learning gave me the opportunity and encouragement to pursue and discover my passions.

            Overall I think I’ve changed the most over this year in the way that I judge other people and behave around other people. I’ve always been very congenial and confident when I talk to other people, but before this year I wasn’t really close with them. I was mostly superficial whenever I talked to some people and I didn’t see the importance of really getting to know someone that at first glance you might not have really cared for. Especially recently, Ive gotten to know so many more of my peers on a much more personal level and it feels good to know that I’ve changed into a deeper, more dimensional figure to my friends. I’m probably still shaping the person I am, but I’m happy with the path I’m taking currently. As I change, I think my deeper passions will stay with me, but perhaps the less important interests and behaviors will be altered. I’m looking forward to becoming what I will be.