Let me take you back to the days of kindergarten: eating chicken nuggets and drinking orange juice for lunch everyday, solid colored track suits (shoutout to my mom for always letting me dress myself), and spending hours pretending to be Pokemon characters with my brothers. 2004, the good ole’ days, right? Simpler times when the world was perfect, or did it just seem that way?

The biggest national news headlines of 2004 were “George Bush Reelection,” “Massachusetts Legalizes Gay Marriage,” and “The Iraqi War on Terrorism.” The news shows that the people of America were politically divided and feared terrorism.

The biggest national news headlines of 2016 were “Donald Trump Elected 45th President of U.S.,” “The Orlando Night Club Shooting,” and “The Syrian Refugee Crisis.” The news shows that the people of America were politically divided and feared terrorism.

Did you spot the parallelism yet? I often hear complaints that we have corrupted and destroyed our world. I hear that the fall of America is here, and that we are headed down the path of self-destruction. But hey, look at 2004 or 2003, and you will see the world has always had its problems. The world has been fearful, angry, and confused before and will be again in the future.

In kindergarten, we were too busy learning the important matters at hand, like ABCABC patterns and that it was nearly impossible for us to start learning how to subtract, let alone busy ourselves with the foreign affairs policies of the United States, Our ignorance protected us like our favorite blanket. But now, there is no escaping the harshness of the world. We have become too aware, but it is in this awareness that we receive power.

We are responsible for the fate of the world. Choosing to be selfish will only be met with a larger dilemma. Choosing ruthlessness will only result in failure. In whatever tough decisions that are bound to cross our paths, it’s important to remember what we have learned about compassion, integrity, and respect.

We don’t get to put the blame on anyone but ourselves for the state of the world. Accountability is a hard lesson to learn and an even harder lesson to exemplify. Seniors, we take our last steps out of Xavier High School in a few short days and our first steps into the world as people who have the tools to make an impact on the future. Problems will always exist in this world, but that doesn’t mean that we stop advocating for kindness and respect. It’s our time to make this community, nation, and world better.

The   biggest  national news headlines for  2028 have yet to be written, so class of 2017, let’s make them good.

Katie Janney

Health & Lifestyle Editor