But how far are we willing to go?

Today, the focus seems to be on looks; everyone wants to be beautiful. What happened to the days when we simply accepted who we were? Suddenly, there’s this craze to be the best.

Look at the shows that are popping up faster than we can say “plastic surgery.” The latest reality, beauty show is Fox’s The Swan, which is a kicked-up descendant of ABC’s Extreme Makeover. In The Swan, 18 “ugly ducklings” (aka women) are carefully picked to be magically transformed into what modern-day society calls beautiful. Two women are picked for each show, and a team that consists of a coach, a therapist, many plastic surgeons, a dietician, and a trainer are assigned to each woman to help her look completely and fantastically different by the end of three months. In these three months, the women are mirror deprived, and the end of each show is extremely dramatic because it reveals the women in front of a mirror for the first time. Typically, the women stand in front of the mirror, gasp, and cry at how “beautiful” they are. Then, one woman is selected to go on to the Swan Pageant at the end of the season, and this pageant crowns one woman as the most beautiful out of all that have been transformed.

Please. Could we get any more shallow? There’s nothing wrong with having a little self-pride and taking steps to improve yourself, but vanity is running amuck in our country now. Soon, it will get to the point where if you don’t like something, you can simply throw a little money away to have it fixed—permanently. And why not? If you can afford it, why not do it, right?

It’s almost scary the way things are going. In the future, will anyone look like the way they were born ? What is with the insatiable need to look like a Barbie clone? Soon, we’re going to have a country full of these fake, beautiful people. Will it come to the point where we really start weeding out the best? (Do the words “master race” come to anyone’s mind?)

Graduation itself can bring a whole slew of emotions. The majority of seniors are excited and hopeful for their lives outside of Brodhead, but there is a touch of sadness; after all, the end of high school is the end of an era.

So what happens out there in the great, wide world? What are words of wisdom to live by? My collection of advice may not be the best as seen by all eyes, but the experiences that and the things I have learned from those that have gone before me can be taken by not only seniors, but everyone.

Always be true to yourself is something that we’ve all heard before and rolled our eyes at, but I can’t stress enough how important it is. You have to be you for the rest of your life. When you’re thrown out into the real world, there isn’t always a net to fall on of people that will help you out.

Life is all about decisions. No one can make you feel a certain way or do something; you choose to do every little thing. You can choose what mood you’re in, you can choose the clothes you wear, you can choose what to say. Remember that every choice leads to another choice, and while spontaneity can be fun, stop and think once in a while too. It may affect the rest of your life.

Perhaps the best tidbit of wisdom I have picked up was a quote from a science teacher, “Remember success is not a destination—it’s a journey.” Success is not always trial and error; you don’t do one thing and gain it right off the bat. As we have learned in high school, everything takes some sort of work. If you have a career goal, you’re going to have a long road ahead of you that never ends, but think of it this way: once you get somewhere you want to be, you’ll have many more choices to further one of the many successes you’ll achieve.