There is moment that I’ll never forget. A moment that every student and faculty member will cherish forever. A moment that seemed to bring us all together despite our differences. The kickoff was coming up and as the band got ready to play the “Eye of the Panther” everyone in the student section looked down amongst the tight crowd of anxious teenagers and somehow linked pinkies with the person next to them.

High school doesn’t last forever, but sitting in the student section with everyone belting together to cheer on the team really makes me wish that it did. There’s something about the unity that the student body has at games and other school events that bring our community closer together and tends to make students forget about the infinite amount of differences between them. Instead, we just live in the moment, disregarding the fact that we may not know who we are linking our pinkies with.

Recently the atmosphere at the school has managed to tarnish the special feeling that each student and staff member feel at games and other school activities. Between demeaning rhetoric on twitter, inappropriate actions by students, and a lack of understanding on both the left and right side of politics I can officially say that we are becoming our parents.

This election has been disappointing in a multitude of ways, but the worst aspect of it all is the lack of respect that Americans are showing to fellow citizens. Even students here have let their political ideologies cloud their purpose for attending school in the first place- to learn. While most of the student body is unable to vote it is no secret that our generation has a major impact on the political world. With this type of effect on the country I see no reason as to why we should respond to this election in an immature way.

Everyone grows up in a different way, and has a different perspective on life itself. These perspectives often form our political views, and prevent us from looking into the viewpoints of fellow students. The reason that there has been so much tension at the school is because we are all too stubborn, and quite frankly, too ignorant to attempt to understand the opinions of others. We judge people without even thinking. When students judge someone because they don’t take AP/IB classes, they can’t afford the same type of clothes that you wear, or they don’t have time to be in school organizations they separate the school into different sects. We can’t be united if we are divided in these matters or political ones.

Why can’t we accept each other’s opinions and live every day with our pinkies held high for the whole world to see that the community at our school is unbreakable? I mean we have our flaws from time to time and we are definitely not always “winning with class” but it is important for students recognize that even though not every peer has the same opinions, religion or political identity it doesn’t make any one individual less important.

Half of the time at pep rallies or games, I have no idea who is holding my pinky. Despite the fact that basically a million students go to our school, each time I don’t know who is standing next to me at a game, or sitting next to me in a class, it makes me feel a little bit of guilt. Though I may never know who held my pinky at any of these events or who sat next to me in class, I do know that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who that person voted for in 2016. What matters is that I view them as another human being rather than an emotionless follower of a political figure.

Let’s live like our pinkies will be held in the air forever. Let’s live like nothing, not our ever-changing opinions, not this election, not people’s view of our school will let us loose our grip. And when our pinkies do eventually come down after that split second, let’s not forget the single moment when we all connected.