My Wanderings in the Desert of High School

My junior year of high school I wrote a paper for my hebrew testament class comparing high school and the Israelites wandering in the desert.

Class: Hebrew Testament

Date: 20 November 2005

My Wanderings in the Desert of High School

Just like the Israelites wandered in the dry, dusty desert, I wandered through the stressful, emotional desert called High School. The Israelites wandered through the desert, not knowing what they were going to eat or where they were going to sleep. In my wanderings through high school, I did not know what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to be. Throughout the Israelites journey, they were lost, worried, complaining, frustrated, trusting or doubting God, and they encountered strangers. In my journey, I also felt the same way as the Israelites did when they wandered the desert.

Just like the Israelites were lost in the desert, I have been lost in the world of High School. As a freshman, obviously you are lost and confused because it’s a new world, a new atmosphere. But, even through sophomore year and the beginning of junior year, you still can feel lost and abandoned. Throughout all of your high school years, you are lost and confused at moments because you do not always know where you are going or what you are going to do with what is right in front of you.

The Israelites were also worried. They worried about food, clothes, the elderly and the sick, and many other things. In high school worry is a very familiar word. Between school and extra-curricular activities, stress is a common word that is always heard. After 6 ½ hours of school, we go to our after school things, and by the time we get home, all we want to do is sit down and breathe. But, instead of sitting down and breathing, it’s time to go and do the hours of homework and studying for tests. Sleep in unheard of when stress is around. Worrying about all of the things of everyday life often makes feelings of worry.

Just as every teen would do, the Israelites complained through their teen years in the desert as a people. Also through high school, I have complained about the amount of homework, the hard tests, the essays that I didn’t want to do, and not getting what I wanted. Complaining however doesn’t do anything except give you more stress and worry. When you just do the work, you spend less time stressing about it, and just did it.

The Israelites were stuck in the desert not knowing what was going to happen or even where they were going. Just like the Israelites, in high school you often don’t know exactly what is going to happen or something goes wrong and we get frustrated. Frustrated, and often feeling alone, we wonder why high school is so hard and why everything happens the way it does.

With all of these things, their are times where you trust God completely, and times where you are just not sure if he really does exist and really does care. When you say things just cannot get any worse, and then they do, you wonder why it is all happening. Why is God leaving you? Why has he left you by yourself and alone? Then you have the moment of inspiration, where you understand why things happen and you completely trust in what God has in store for you. Still, since being Catholic is hard, it’s extremely hard to stay completely trusting in God because so many things that are hard to understand are happening, all at once.

The Israelites also met many people along their journey. Some of the people they met hurt them, while some helped them out. In the world of high school you meet more people than you can keep track of. Some people made soft impressions because you only talked to them once, or just saw them in a group. Or maybe they made a dent in me, we talk occasionally and we were involved in each others life to an extent. Then there are the people who made footprints on us. They helped us or hurt us. They are very influential people that played a big role in our lives and who we are and who we will become in the near future. Lastly, there are those few people who left engravings in who we are, the ones that changed our lives. They are the people that changed who we are for the rest of our lives. The people that will forever be remembered because they had the much of an impact on who we are. Funny thing is, that they, at one time, were all strangers to us. We didn’t know who they were the whole time. We had to meet them, and the fact that we met them, changed our life forever.

All of the Israelites had to go through many struggles, similar to those of us now over 2000 years later. It shows that there must be something in common with all of us as humans. It shows that we all have the same feelings and struggles. But all the struggles are different, because we are all different people. The main difference between all of us is that we live in different times. However, all of us have the same feelings and struggles and want to be happy. The Israelites and I have many things in common, more things in common then I could ever imagine.