For as long as I can remember I’ve heard the Helix Bagpipes from my bedroom window every night. I live very close to the Helix High School campus and knew from the very start that, when I was older, I would attend the high school just down the road.
At Helix I am part of Link Crew, a group of upperclassmen who welcome the incoming freshmen, and Journalism, a class that aims to start and run the school paper.
Outside of school, I figure skate at the Kroc Center and I work at the La Mesa branch of the San Diego County Library. I am also part of Assemblymember Akilah Weber’s Youth Legislators and am currently working on getting a bill passed which would declare California’s low literacy rates as an educational crisis. The day I am writing this is my 18th birthday and I now see that everyone was right, time does fly by.
I am so excited for this upcoming school year and have many goals, both inside and outside of school, that I am determined to achieve.
I will be spending most of the upcoming months perfecting my college applications and applying for as many scholarships as I can. To help pass time when I am waiting for what will hopefully be many acceptance letters, I plan to read all the remaining books on my to-read list and spend more time creating stained glass art with my grandmother. I will soon start learning the hardest type of figure skating jump, the axel, and start working towards upgrading my favorite single jumps, such as salchow and loop, into double rotation jumps.
Class of 2025 is the first group of students to attend all four years of high school in person since the Class of 2019. We were nearing the end of seventh grade when the nation went into lockdown and we transitioned into what would become almost two years of distance learning.
I hope my fellow Helix seniors make the most out of our final year because the future is unpredictable and nothing is guaranteed.
We each have learned so much throughout our lives and have such great potential to change the world.
Editor’s note: This piece was written by Helix Charter High School senior Hayley Dunkel.
Top photo courtesy of Helix Charter High School.
