By MEHAR NANGIA
Staff Writer

I like to think that every day is an empty canvas–a canvas that I can paint any way I wish, a canvas that allows me to truly express myself. I live my life the way I want to live my life. I used to think everyone did this, but they do not. Do you?
Society does not think we should. Society tells us that a test is more important than the poem someone has been dying to write. Society says that even if someone loves art, he or she needs to take AP Biology. But society is wrong. People are so much more than what society wants them to be. And who is “society”? “Society” is everyone. We all feed into each other’s quests for normality.
Explore, love, and learn. Without love, what is life? Do what you love and love what you do. In this rat race we call high school, individual passions are sometimes difficult. I feel you. Even though I claim to be a free spirit, in the end I am a rat too. We are all just little rats chasing that Ivy, are we not? This is where you come in. Your goals are what you must define for yourself. In this race, do you want to passively participate, not having any idea of your goal or its risks? Think about it this way. You want that 4.4 GPA to get into a good college. Why do you want to get into a good college? Do you want to get into a good masters or doctorate program? Sure. And then what? Do you want to get a good job? And then do you want to have kids? And then do you want to raise them in a safe city, where they are supposedly protected from the world? And then do you want them to repeat your cycle so they can care for you when you are old? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you are not alone. There is nothing wrong with such a path, until you think about it. It makes no sense that every single human has the same path to happiness. We all have different interests, loves and passions. We are simply not the same. So why would all of our paths to happiness be the same?
Ultimately, I only ask you for one thing. Just one thing, today. Please, find your love, chase it and do not give it up.