Opinion: Senior projects – Around the World in 30 Plates

The classes you are allowed to take in high school are usually planned out for you from the moment you walk through the doors. You’re set on a path starting freshman year, with only a little wiggle room when it comes to electives. Though it is important for students to receive a well rounded education, not everyone enjoys every subject. WHS’s senior independent projects provide seniors the opportunity to explore what they’re passionate about, while dropping the classes that they don’t like as much. If you have something you’re passionate about like I do, you definitely should do a senior project.

I’ve always known that I wanted to do a senior project. The idea of taking control of my education excited me, as did the thought of dropping my math and science classes. Even though my teachers considered me a “strong student” who had “lots of potential,” those classes didn’t make me feel as challenged or interested as I did in my language, English and history classes. Other friends of mine doing senior projects did the exact opposite as me, dropping their more liberal studies classes. Choosing which classes you drop all depends on what kind of student you are.

The obvious problem then presented itself. What would my senior project be about? I thought about learning Italian and connecting it to my roots in Florence and Griante, Italy. I thought about doing a fashion blog similar to my “Mirror Mirror” posts here on WSPN. But in the back of my mind I knew similar projects had been done before and that I wanted to do something that I was so passionate about it wouldn’t feel like work at all. And that led me to cooking, with some other elements added in.

When I combined my two favorite things, culture and cooking, a project developed in my head that I quickly became very invested in. I was so happy to learn that my project, which is an international cooking blog called “Around the World in 30 Plates,” had been accepted, and I started planning out everything right away. Luckily, the college I am attending in the fall agreed to let me do the project, and I found a very helpful outside adviser, my mom, who knows more about cooking than anyone I know and made the adviser process convenient.

The first day of my senior project, I made biscotti from my favorite country: Italy. My mom and I put on some Italian music and cooked the whole morning. I dropped two classes, math and psychology, so I had the first four blocks free, which was plenty of time to cook and enjoy the biscotti.

Halfway through cooking, I turned to my mom and said how much more I enjoyed doing this instead of waking up at six a.m. and going to class, and how happy cooking made me. I was no longer in classes I wasn’t invested in that came along with piles of homework. I was doing what I loved and eating well as a result.

Though it was a huge responsibility to take on, and I often found myself doing a lot more work than I originally intended, I wouldn’t change one thing about my experience. Well, maybe I would have liked some recipes to work out better than they did, but that’s all a part of the cooking experience.

If you have something outside of school, or even inside, that you are passionate about and can see yourself committing to for several weeks, I highly encourage you to do a senior project. It has by far been the best decision of my high school career. This is a rare chance to take charge of your education and make something that you’re proud of and that you can show off to the Wayland community. Whether it’s cooking, learning a language, volunteering or building something, if you love it, apply! You won’t regret it.

You can see all of the senior projects on Wednesday, May 27 at 6:30 p.m. during the senior project presentation in the media center, and you can check out my blog here.

Opinion articles written by staff members represent their personal views. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent WSPN as a publication.