On Friday May 1^st, 28 seniors walked into the gym at 7:00am. Starbucks and breakfast sandwiches in hand, they walked around looking at each everyone’s white t-shirts. What was drawn/written on them was something that symbolized their life. As 7:30 rolled around, the gym doors flew open as 100 juniors walked through the door to retrieve their name tag. This was the start of “Be the Change” day.

“When I walked through the doors I expected everyone to get to know each other on a more personal level,” junior Oscar Rozanski said. “But towards the end of the day I didn’t expect the stories or things that I did hear.”

Students piled into the bleachers and watched a video produced by Houston Kraft named Perspecticles.  The video’s meaning was to not judge anyone because you never know what is actually going on in their life. After the video, students broke up into groups of 10-13. After introducing themselves to the rest of the group, all the students made one big circle around the gym. As Mr. Bonner and Ms. Shadoff read questions over the microphone, students stepped forward if the question pertained to them. The five topics that were talked about were: School, home, yourself, friends, and being a victimizer. After 10 questions, the students went back to the smaller groups and talk more in depth about the questions that were asked in the large circle.

Many of the seniors this year where part of Be the Change last year as juniors.

“It was cool to get a different perspective of the underclassmen, as well as to see the other side of it this year.  Getting to actually lead the event was fun,” Jacksen Bates said.

As many tears were shed throughout the day, people grew closer together. After all the topics were talked about, there was time for note writing and an open mic at the end of the day. A plethora of shout outs were said, and people ran across the gym in tears to give hugs to their best friend.

James Horne summed up the day in the open mic saying, “We are the change.”