Column 5

By Kennedy Wilson, Editor In Chief

What’s the first thing you do when something bad happens?  It’s an interesting question, one that I am not quite sure I want the answer to, because often times it will lead to more questions, and before you know it, you are thinking of all the bad things that have happened in your life… Or maybe, that’s just me.

  My first question when something goes wrong is: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  Which, in all honesty, sounds pretty vain when you’re applying it to your own life, but it’s a valid question. Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s the type of question you know you’re never going to get the answer to, but you still ask it because in some silly way, it makes you feel better; it fools you into thinking you have control. But the truth is, it’s a loaded question, because who gets to decide if you or anyone else is a “good person”?  Sure, we would all like to believe that we are “good,” but really, as high schoolers, who knows what we will end up doing to this world… to ourselves… to each other…

  One of the most intriguing statements I’ve heard was on the TV show Scandal (which is a great show that I recommend to literally everyone). The quote goes, “You get what you deserve, but some people get more than that.” I heard that over two months ago, and it has stuck with me, because it really makes you wonder. Maybe some people are the luckiest people in the world and get way more than they should. This leads us down a new rabbit hole that questions fate, paths and destiny. Maybe our actions don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things, maybe things really do just happen to happen and maybe none of us deserve anything. I guess it boils downs to the way you think and the person you are. What do you deserve?  Why do you deserve it?

  The second thing I do when something goes wrong is negotiate. I try to balance my life out like a teeter-totter. If I really want something, I start thinking to myself, “Well, what would I give up for this?” and although a lot of the time, the two things have virtually nothing to do with each other, I think that if I say I will give up one for the other, then maybe, just maybe, I could get lucky. And I know deep down that this doesn’t work; but like asking myself what I deserve, it gives me the false sense of security that I am in control of everything I want to be.  You can fight until your knuckles are bleeding, but you’ll still lose, and the biggest secret out there is the answer to the question and the negotiations: things will happen to you that you can’t control, but that doesn’t make them your fault. So take a big breath, and realize that you can’t control everything. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.