Step Up and Say Yes

It’s important to know how to say “no” in high school and in life. We really could pass up on negative peer pressure, bad life habits, or more workload that puts our family in the back burner.

But sometimes we need to say yes. High School lesson #5: Step Up and Say Yes.

My senior year, I was in the Journalism class because they were short-staffed with senior students who could take on editor roles. So I became the news editor, in charge of the front and back of our school newspaper. I also had to write my own articles and edit the news articles.

I was completely new to journalism and only joined because my friend twisted my arm. One day, I overheard my teacher and a couple of the veteran journalism students talking about this drunk driving program with the city. I wasn’t sure what it was about, but my friend was unable to go, so I said I’d do it. Just like that. I might have wanted to get a free day out of school 🙂

Turns out, the program was awesome. The city assigned a police officer with a school’s select 2-3 journalism or yearbook students to show the students the consequences of drunk driving. These students, then, would write a feature article about the program in their school newspapers about their experience. Then those articles are placed in a contest, and the best article and best layout would win a monetary prize to help fund the journalism class.

The police officer came to our school, “arrested” the yearbook photographer, while I asked lots of questions and took lots of notes. We…

rode in the police car
the officer looked up our driving records
we went to the prison
saw drunk arrested guys in a padded holding cell
stood by the wall while the worst of their worst prisoners came out in a line, chained to each other, and heading towards their daily dose of sunlight
took a tour of the precinct & and a closed prison ward
saw their shelf of prisoner’s crafts (shivs, soap carvings, pen tattoos)
listened to an informative lecture on drunk driving
went to the morgue
saw gangrene
stood by the wall (again) while they brought in 2 bodies covered in white sheets, one was clearly a woman, the other a man with a knife still in his chest

It was one of the best experiences I had in high school, and I wouldn’t have gotten it if I didn’t say yes. Technically, I volunteered myself. I said yes by stepping up. But through the entire process, I had to keep saying yes by stepping up.

I’m an introvert and I do well by observing. I could have written a lot by just observing, but I knew what a great opportunity this was. So I had to put myself out there. Ask questions nobody was asking. Ask the journalism photographer/features editor (there were 3 of us) to take the pictures I wanted. Volunteer to wear the “drunk goggles” they showed us at the lecture so I can have first hand experience to write about.

BTW, those goggles impair your sight so much that they simulate being drunk. There were different degrees of impairment and I chose the highest one. Interestingly enough, I thought I was walking the line well, but the officer had to assist me. Caught my arms. Asked if I was okay. Kinda like when you’re drunk. You think you’re fine, but your senses are totally impaired.

Anyway, guess who won both article and layout prizes. We did! I wrote the article, my friend did the layout, though we all helped each other out. There were a lot of journalism students there. Most of them probably had more experience that I did. I do believe that stepping up and saying yes helped push my article to the top.

The entire time, I had to forget the butterflies in my tummy or my nervously pounding heart and just go for it. Don’t be afraid to step up and say yes, especially to those rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Go for it.

By the biggest way, drunk driving is NOT one of those opportunities. To drunk driving, the answer is always NO.

Missed it? HS Lesson 1, 2, 3, and 4.