Although she says she, “practically lives in Pitman with Molly West and Miriam Bischoff,” Lena Gayraud is a day student from Cheshire. She is a Varsity Soccer player, Swimmer and Water Polo player and has also been a Peer Educator and the Arts Editor for The News. She loves Senior Dance Lessons, French class and Non-Fiction Writing, but her dream job is to be a secret agent.
There are a lot of important people in my life... friends, family, and swimmers. But two characters stand out in my mind as having the greatest impact on me. They’re not even really people, per say. But hey, anything goes. This is a shoutout to Timon and Pumbaa, the two best philosophers pretty much ever.
For those of you who led deprived childhoods, Timon is a meerkat and Pumbaa is a warthog; they are jungle dwellers in Disney’s motion picture, The Lion King. They eat bugs and take a lot of naps. But most importantly, Timon and Pumbaa have a life philosophy that I have aspired to adopt as my own. They live by the phrase “hakuna matata”, a Swahili saying that translates to “no worries”. As the “Hakuna Matata” song states, it’s a problem- free philosophy.
With this in mind, I think that we all complain too much. Each and every one of us leads a good life. We are so lucky to be here, in this country, at this school, even if right now you are sitting on the floor, the kid next to you smells, the kid in front of you is too tall, and you hate listening to other people speak.
I’ll start with a pretty common Choate complaint. “Ohhhhhhh my gawwwdddd I have like nine classes and no frees and no lunch and no dinner and I’m failing math and I’m not getting into college and I’m soooo tired.”
Sounds kind of familiar, right?
I’m guilty of it, you’re guilty of it, and your mom is guilty of it. Think about kids your age in third world countries. They don’t have a lunch period, either. They don’t even know where their next meal will come from, or if there will be a next meal. They’re probably pretty tired too.
And the schoolwork... Please, take a chill pill with your orange juice in the morning. If you get bad grades, you are not a bad person. If you get bad grades, it doesn’t mean your life is over. If you get bad grades, your parents still love you. If you get bad grades, I still love you.
And the whole getting into a “good college” thing... honestly, it’s overrated. You will all be accepted somewhere and if you aren’t, you could do something else: volunteer in Africa, train for the Olympics, pick up a new hobby, bartend... the possibilities are endless.
Faculty members, this goes for you too. [Just substitute “school work” with “grading papers”, and “lack of sleep” with “lack of sleep”.
Next complaint: “I hate winter term at Choate.”
Every time I hear the word “hate” and “Choate” in the same sentence, I feel sadness. Just because its winter doesn’t mean that Choate is a bad place... it’s all about how you handle it. Yes, it’s cold, but it could be colder. Put on a jacket and suck it up. Yes, there’s snow on the ground. Try playing in it. And yes there’s no sun, but sun causes skin cancer so it’s OK. Learn to live with your surroundings : go sledding, make snowmen, play football in the snow, attack freshmen with snowballs, lacrosse sticks, whatever you can find. There’s no use complaining about the winter because every year, whether you and your Ugg boots like it or not, it will come back, so you might as well enjoy it.
The winter term leads me to the next complaint that I often hear and absolutely need to refute: “The swim team is soo weird.”
“The swimmers all sit together at dinner; they’re such a cult.”
“You reek of chlorine.”
Here’s what I have to say about this. No we’re not weird. We just love each other. Accept it. Together, swimmers go through about 250 laps a day, sore shoulders, water up the nose, five hour meets, Speedos that are too small, and chlorine overdoses; it’s only normal that we are so tight. Let the swim team and every other group here be themselves and have their fun. Your complaints about the chlorine cult, insensitive hockey jocks, cliquey softball players, and lazy yoga kids will not change anything.
The last complaint I’m going to address, unlike the others, is not common. In fact, I have only heard it once, at Field Day. But it’s a good excuse to talk about what I’m about to talk about.
So here’s the complaint I heard: “YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST FORM EVER. YOU’RE WORSE THAN THE FRESHMEN!” Granted, the comment was blurted in the heat of a dodgeball game, so I forgive you anonymous scary faculty member. But, I’m going to have to disagree with you. The class of ’06 is the best class, ever. We’ve got exotic flavor (you should see Roberto when he salsas). We decorate campus with intriguing chalk designs. We had not one, but two perfect SAT’s. We’re good looking! P-Cup has never been as organized, publicized, or exciting. Our Boar Pen can be heard from 4 miles away. Not one senior has been expelled this year (knock on wood). And let’s be honest, what other class has led Choate through a Deerfield sweep?
So my point is basically this: stop complaining, put your problems into perspective, and just enjoy. We tend to get caught up in the fast pace of the Choate life and take what we have for granted. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have or what bothers you, focus on what you do have that makes you happy: your friends, your teachers, your team, Mem field, Frisbee, burger day, beating Deerfield, sleep- ins, Rose’s breakfast sandwiches, P-Cup, Halo, Jack Bauer, SAC dances, the back of the Press, spring break... the list goes on. Don’t worry about things that aren’t worth worrying about. All that accomplishes is high stress levels, which leads to gray hair and heart attacks. So for the freshmen who are worried about Sunday D, to the sophomores who think the PSAT’s mean something, to the juniors who tremble at the thought of spring term, to my seniors who may be unsure of the road ahead... you need only to live by the wise words of Timon and Pumbaa. Hakuna Matata.
