In 2022 it’s impossible for students to know what they want in life. With hundreds of different avenues and opportunities kids, unlike their parents, don’t have much direction. At East, the students are like everyone else; in that we all struggle with who we are. But who do these students look up to, and why? And more importantly, how does it affect their future?

“When it comes to things I’m very passionate about like my education… I can be very fixated on making sure I achieve my highest goals and standards that matter to me,” senior Ben Morgan said. “As well as being kind to others because I believe karma comes back to you.” Morgan is a member of National Honor Society, the school swim team, Eco Club, and United Heritage Club as well as a former member of the Spartan Speech team and Cross Country. Morgan pursued many different clubs to seek his interests and meet new people, never wanting to stay with just one group. Preferring to be a “friend of a friend” to as many people as he could. Morgan is an NHS character member, meaning he promotes growing and building character among seniors. Morgan has gone so far as helping start the “act of kindness week” for all NHS members where members had to commit a good act and document it as well as reflect on it. “Other people and other peoples kindness is underrated and we don’t appreciate the things others do for us,” Morgan said.
Morgan’s role models are both of his grandparents; they inspired him to give back to the community. Morgan would go with them to food banks and charity events and “I would see the impact they would make.” Those two people became good authority figures to Morgan, recalling when he would get in trouble as a kid; they would always hold him accountable. “I take what their morals that they taught me, definitely not for granted, but for heart,” Morgan said.
At the end of the year he wants to spend as much time as possible with his family before he goes off to college. At the end of 2022 he plans to hopefully just be happy. “Inevitably wherever I go, I don’t want to leave Nebraska… I intend to be happy with the decisions I make.”
Morgan takes what he’s learned from the people he’s met and the kindness he’s shared and is trying to make an optimistic future with it. But, he assures students that putting too much pressure on their future is unrealistic.

“You don’t really have to care about what others think, because they are not living your own life… you’re the main character, carry yourself like the main character,” junior Celeste Cruz-Rivera said. Cruz-Rivera would describe themselves as a “simple” student. She loves to study and read, and in accordance with the life of a junior, “I always like to look ahead, always,”Cruz-Rivera is always prepared and doesn’t like to be spontaneous. Celeste’s after school life since freshman year has consisted of speech and spending more time with family. She’s been in Speech since she was a freshman, and has been helping her mother with work. Cruz-Rivera always worked hard to make her future better, aiming to end her highschool years with good grades and teacher recommendations. But, like all high highschool students, she still has much she would like to grow on.
Cruz-Rivera recalls an English assignment where you had to pick a word to describe how you wanted to end this year. The word she chose to end her year was confidence. She wants to move outside her comfort zone and “not be so afraid of doing what I do.” Cruz-Rivera doesn’t take the easy way out, she constantly tries to put herself out there by talking in front of people as her true authentic self rather than someone else. She has grown from a more standalone person since freshman year into a better version of herself. Cruz-Rivera talks about how kids often look to others to see what they are lacking, and use them as a placeholder for who they should be. But, Cruz-Rivera learned from high school and her peers that doing that will lead nowhere. “I want to be them, and they want to be someone else,” Cruz-Rivera said. “So honestly it’s a goal that I can never achieve, and that’s ok.”
Cruz-Rivera didn’t really have a role model growing up. Rather than having one person be that model, she chooses someone who portrays a lot of confidence. People who look like they can talk easily. All highschoolers are afraid of saying the wrong thing and being outcasted because of it, and being labeled as a bad version of themselves. But Cruz-Rivera shares what she’s learned from her three years at East High. “Why would I want to be someone else, when I could be me?”