Waiting for Better Things

This is the last language arts essay that I wrote for middle school (I still have to write one for science about giant squid). I did copy some from my earlier post Waiting, but that's only the second paragraph. The assignment was the find a song that described the school year for me, and I picked a song by Dar Williams.

 
          For my entire life, it feels like I’ve been waiting for something to come, something that will make everything better and change the way that I look at the world. I don’t know if it’s an opportunity or a natural event that will just come with life, but it’s as if I’m holding my breath, and looking forward, straining my neck to catch a glimpse at what’s yet to arrive. It’s this that keeps me going, and won’t let me give up when times are hard. I always know that there’s that one thing, whatever it is, left for me, and I can’t wait to see what it is.

          Not knowing what you're waiting for is such a wonderful thing, though. You have no idea what lies in store for you, but it's certain to be fantastic, since you're traveling along a path unknown to others, with the routes that may come along only applying to and affecting you. Maybe I'll graduate high school with honors. Maybe I'll learn how to speak Finnish. Maybe I'll survive a giant earthquake (or not). I don't see how anyone could be so sick and tired of life that it has no interest anymore. Sure, I feel tired sometimes and just want to sleep for a week, but at least there's still the hidden surprise and suspense of not knowing what happens next. Older people who think that they have no time to do anything with their remaining time are wrong-there's always time for something else. The more you do, the more you discover...maybe you'll eventually find out what you've been waiting for your entire life.

          It took a lot of soul searching for me to find this song, the one that wraps up my entire year with just a few chords and some words jumbled together. I eventually chose “Better Things”, by Dar Williams, and the theme resonates with eighth grade for me so much. Even through the toughest times, there are still better things on their way. In a sense, the process of finding the song also connected to my experience this year. I spent so much time trying to figure out who I wanted to be that I didn’t have time to fill in the gaps with what was really good for me inside.  What I really needed to do was to concentrate on the future instead of dwelling on the past.

           Seventh grade was much harder for me than eighth grade in so many ways. I was trying to deal with my friends who were a year older than me and also with the woes and troubles of my friends my own age. I wasn’t challenged enough in some ways, but other things were the most difficult things I had ever attempted to do, whether or not they had anything to do with school. When I got to eighth grade, though, it was like a door had been opened for me, to a huge new world with so many possibilities. All of a sudden I was in better classes, and found more of a passion for music. Here's hoping all the days ahead won’t be as bitter as the ones behind you/Be an optimist instead, and hope that happiness will find you/Forget what happened yesterday, I know that better things are on their way, the lyrics say. As long as you forget what horrible things have happened in your past, goodness will eventually find you without any outside help. Why would you give up on yourself with so much left in store?

             There’s a saying on my math teacher’s wall that I get to look at every day in math, that always gives me another reminding jolt in my mind when I read it. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. I went through so many great experiences this year, and had no idea what I was going to do with myself once they were over. Every time, though, I thought of the quote, and it really did make me smile. If something like that happen once, it can definitely happen again, and next time it will be even better. I know you've got a lot of good things happening up ahead/The past is gone, it’s all been said/So here’s to what the future brings/I hope tomorrow you find better things.

             It’s true that I’ve had my share of troubles in middle school, but my eighth grade year has been mostly filled with fear and anticipation about the year that will change how I look at school forever-my new life down at the high school. Everything that I do now seems to impact what will happen there, whether it’s passing a test or writing a simple essay. When I went to graduation at the high school this year, however, the commencement speaker told everyone in the room, no matter what age, to consider life to be starting "tomorrow". Today you are just beginning, he said, and nothing that you have done for the first bit of your life matters, but tomorrow everything will fall into place. This bit of his speech really made me realize that it’s true about me, and really goes along with the song as well: It’s really good to see you rocking out and having fun/Living like you’ve just begun/Accept your life and what it brings/I hope tomorrow you find better things.

             Although the entire song seems to fit in with my personality and view on life this year, it is the beginning that really makes me feel that this piece and these lyrics describe my eighth grade year so well. Emerging out of the bring introduction, the beginning lyrics are what sum up the entire song, and send out the message that I believe is crucial to life-don’t get up, because you have to so much to live for. Here’s wishing you the bluest sky/And hoping something better comes tomorrow/Hoping all the verses rhyme/and all the very best of choruses too/Follow all the doubt and sadness/I know that better things are on their way.

              
          No matter how tough things were before, there are still things in store that will change my life forever. There will be storms, of course, and even hurricanes that threaten to rip apart any form of happiness, but there will also be blue skies and calm seas that stretch on endlessly for miles and miles.  I might be leaving something behind, but I’m on to explore something new and brighter.