Ray’s Reflection: Joe Mietus

I still remember how I felt in the summer of 2019 waiting to start my first day of high school. I remember being anxious and nervous of what was going to happen to me. I was nervous about how I was going to change and what direction my life would take me. But in what felt like a second, I am now a senior about to graduate high school and go to college. In just four years, I learned how fast time goes and how quick life can change. 

I began high school in Illinois. In the beginning, I had no intentions of moving to Florida. I had planned to be with my childhood friends throughout high school making memories. However, sophomore year rolled around and I was now living in Florida with new friends who I barely knew, starting at a school that was completely new to me. I went from going to a big school with thousands of kids, to a school with less than 300. This was a big change for me and it taught me many things.

One of the biggest things I will take with me once I leave high school is the idea that it is better to do things than just think about doing them. Many people can be scared to do things just because they sound scary. However, high school has taught me that sometimes you just need to dive head first into a situation. Once I did this, it made me realize how much easier life can be. For example, I wanted to get a job and a friend of mine had told me to get a job at the same place he worked. I put it off for about a month before I decided one day to just grab an application. Once I did this I got an interview immediately and got hired the next day. 

The same thing could be said about school as well. I know it sounds silly, but I used to be scared to ask questions. I always thought I could just figure everything out without help. But throughout my time at MIA, I realized that asking questions as soon as they arise helps my understanding and shortens the time it takes for me to develop new skills.

This takes me to another lesson I learned in high school – not being afraid to speak. I feel like nowadays, many people are either afraid or simply don’t like to speak to people in person, especially when they do not know the person. But this usually makes things more difficult all around since there is no communication. For example, you could be doing a group project with someone, but if the other person doesn’t want to talk to you, then the whole process becomes extremely frustrating, and usually results in poor quality work. Speaking up and treating everyone the same is something that I hope will follow me for the rest of my life. Another example would be when I’m at work and I have to train a new employee. Although they might be older than me, or speak little English, it doesn’t give me the right to not be friendly. I have found that it is much easier to work with people when both parties are engaged.

Sitting back and typing in this Journalism right now has made me think of one final lesson I wish I had learned way back before high school. I wish I actually did my work early on and stopped procrastinating. All my years up to about sophomore year, I did not focus much of my time towards school, and just cared about going to parties and hanging out with friends. However, in my junior year I learned that doing work is much easier on me and my grades, especially when finals come around and I actually understand the material.

 I think there are a lot of students just like me in the sense that they can actually be very intelligent, but don’t apply themselves. But I promise, once you actually do the work, it is much more rewarding later on. This lesson can be useful in everyday life as well when you need to run errands or do chores. Procrastination gets nothing done,8 and the earlier you start something the earlier you will be done with it.

High school is like a really fast roller coaster with many highs and lows. What matters is how you deal with the lows and how you act during the highs. All I can tell you is that no matter what I say everybody lives a different life and experiences different things. However, what I do want to end off with is that if life is trying to teach you a lesson at least hear what it’s got to say.