Instead i decided to analyze the semantics of the phrase "It was." When people generally describe things such as school they use the phrase "It was." The problem with using this is the tense of the verb indicating "to be." Was, being a past tense verb, implies that the action or scenario being described has already finish and is unalterable. By describing scenarios with "It was" it limits you to the past and doesn't give the opportunity to make changes. an example of this could even be the prompt for this blog post that is given. We are told to speak our minds of anything pertaining to the phrase "It was" and presumably I gathered from the title we are to do this in reference to this school year. this, however, limits us to reflect and speak on the times that have passed instead of even acknowledging the month and a half we still have.
After re-watching Dead Poets Society today to prepare for this blog post several poems came to my mind that really stuck with me. The first of course is the poem "To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick which was partially recited in the movie. This poem though made me think of a poem that is much less well know. "Jet" by Tony Hoagland is a poem written in the early 1950's which gives the same message as Herrick's poem which is "Carpe Diem." The last stanza in "Jet" reads:
no one really hears. We gaze into the night
as if remembering the bright unbroken planet
we once came from,
to which we will never
be permitted to return.
We are amazed how hurt we are.
We would give anything for what we have.
This poem speaks well of what my intentions of dissecting the phrase "It was" is. High School is a wonderful time where we forge friendships that will last a lifetime. It is also one of the last times we have before we enter full on adulthood all by ourselves. Instead of living life in the past and remembering what "It was" or only looking forward into the future where school is over with, we should live in the moment and learn to enjoy every moment of it. These are some of the best days of our lives and we don't get them back. Instead of wasting all the small moments in life everybody should try to take it all in. Not to sound cliche but this really is our only chance at living our lives and we should try to enjoy every minute of it so instead of asking or describing to somebody what "It was" you should enjoy your life and describe what "it IS."
On that note I hope everybody enjoys every moment for the rest of their high school career :) (I will miss all of you so much next year!)
Also for nostalgia purposes here's my favorite song as a kid which also really drives home the message.
