Did Scott have you fooled? Did you believe that I would leave forever and not say goodbye? I couldn’t do that!
While Scott is incredibly talented and I am so excited for him to be taking over, I’m not finished just yet. I think I have one more blog post left in me.
Two years ago, Maya and I were talking and she brought up the fact that she was starting up Bard, a completely online arts and lifestyle magazine, and asked me if I wanted to join. I had always wanted to try my hand at journalism and I thought that this would be a perfect way to jump in and start writing.
Two years since, I have written tons of articles and blog posts and have had lots of fun taking this journey with all of the readers. I am incredibly thankful for everyone who has ever read anything I’ve ever written for Bard, be they someone I know or don’t know.
And readers, I leave you with the best advice my grandmother ever gave me: do something you love to do and find someone to pay you to do it.
Okay, to be honest, I do not have a job, but I feel that this advice has been relevant to me in my high school career regardless. I have felt like the over the course of the past few years, fellow students are always stressing out and bragging about how busy they are with their extracurriculars or whether or not they are going to win some award or which extracurriculars are going to get them into college. After I quit playing tennis on a regular basis due to injuries, I went through a period where I was stressed out about what kinds of activities I would be able to find to “fill the void.” I tried really hard to make my resume as impressive as possible, however to me, I thought of these activities as work rather than something I did for fun. I see now that that is not how it is supposed to be.
While it may seem like small advice, I would like to leave my readers with the biggest lesson that Bard taught me: be busy, but take on jobs that you legitimately love doing and feel that you are gaining something from. There have been many times where I have felt frustrated because I have felt like I have put in effort into something that doesn’t garner attention while friends have consciously sought out attention and praise. Yet, after reflecting upon my Bard experience, I realize that even though I am not holding some plaque at the end of this experience, it does not make my work on Bard any lesser. Not only have I had an amazing time writing and producing this magazine, but I feel that my work is worthwhile. I am proud of the work I have done and I feel like I have gained a lot from my Bard experience.
I do not know whether I will continue to write for a magazine in college. At my admit weekend I was completely overwhelmed with all of the activities offered. At this moment in time, all I know is that I’m planning on pursuing lots of different activities, and that I will try my best to find things that I enjoy doing and that I find productive.
And it is because Bard was something that I enjoyed doing and found productive that I loved it so much. It has been incredibly hard to say goodbye to. To reflect that, I leave my readers with one final quote:
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
– A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
The Bard 