Alize Ojeda, she’s not the star of any Friday night lights or rallies, but what she is, is the star of some lucky lives and has just as big of an impact as she ever would on any field. She is a bright and joyful student that naturally spreads it around anyone she comes into contact with. Always has her eyes set on her goals in the end and one of them being college, going to NAU no matter what. Bumps along the road are as small as bad grades, and as big as a global pandemic forcing her to miss years of her high school experience, but it’s yet to stop her. Now Alize didn’t have any “mesmerizing” moments of high school that you would automatically think of when asked about your high school days or that you would tell your kids about but let’s not let this shade the experience she got from it no less, and what she learned. Well, something she did learn was that she actually wants to be a teacher herself when she grows up being one of the few fortunate students in the US with a plan after high school. Wanted to explore such a career all thanks to Dr. Shannon Kurst, who helped her get her paraprofessional parent license, “I owe any future success as a teacher to her” she said. But what did all of it really mean to Alize, what really is graduation to her? “A new beginning to a new chapter of my life” One that was much needed as this chapter of her life wasn’t what anyone would ideally want and one no one would probably ever experience if not in her class. But what can you really do about it? Some of us are lucky, some of us aren’t and she got the unfortunate side, but there is an unfortunate side of high school everyone does have to face no matter how lucky you get. You learn much bigger things than math, reading, and science. You learn life lessons that put you on a path for the rest of your life and that she did. When asked the most important lesson she learned she responded “Don’t trust everyone you meet” Ask anyone about their high school experience they’ll probably tell you the same and there’s a lot more that she expressed her feelings for about high school. Though she has her own glory and at times can really stick out she is behind a landscape of students that believe not everything she learns in school is worth being taught in the aspect of her future success. But regarding her future success, when asked if she could change anything from the past when going into high school regarding her current standpoint she was adamant about applying to in-person classes rather than thinking of online classes throughout her junior year if she had the chance as she now realized “It was the original way to go and I should’ve stuck to basics”.

Nonetheless from her standpoint she fully believes high school was worth it, “I really feel like I grew into a better person I’m loving out to be” she said when asked directly was it all worth it and that it was. But what about standpoints not from Alize but from her loved ones. probably her most loved one is her mom. Not being the biggest fan of school or Alize’s high school decisions she felt as if “High school really brought out the good and bad in Alize and I just wish she would’ve had the full experience like how other students get the privilege to.  As well as training her passion for helping people in sports training really brought out her passion to help people and I can’t wait to see her pursue a passion that helps others.” Coming directly from her mom when asked the most revealing thing about Alize throughout her high school years. Now something both standpoints did agree on was something that would always remind the 2 of Alize’s time in high school “First Day Out, it reminds me of training as we listened to it every day” Such a song that will always remind Alize of the passion her mom was lucky enough to see brought out. A coincidence is the best of both worlds. But walking across that stage from a parent’s point of view what does that mean to someone, well putting it perfectly “It’s a new chapter when she walks that stage she gets her first big accomplishment in life after 13 years of hard work and no matter what happened throughout those years between us two the joy I’ll have seeing her there will shed it all away.” The biggest accomplishment one could have at her age and her final message in achieving it being “Stay focused and you can overcome anything you set your mind to, don’t ever bring yourself down.” And with that, she goes to a new chapter.