By Christopher P. Davis ’12, Former Editor-in-Chief and Senior Contributer

I have never been much for reflections, even though over the course of the past seven years at Newark Academy they have been a staple of my assigned writing. I always wished I had a bit more gall  – enough to hand in a mirror as my “creative, original, and personal” response to the prompt. Part of my reluctance is the fact that reflections sound as if they must be grand, sweeping, and draw upon decades of experience. They should be filled with stories that begin, “It all started at a small 5 watt radio station outside Cincinnati…” or “When I was hitch-hiking back from Manitoba for the second time that summer…” – I have none of those stories. I am short on grand, 1970’s style escapades. I am not terribly existential and decided a long-time ago that I did not have the time to be “deep.”

What I do have to offer is a revelation, not an original one, but one that is often lost in the last few years of high school. In the midst of AP and IB exams, ACTs, SATs, and those GPA’s that you never knew you had until junior year, it is all too easy to let your life become defined by acronyms and numbers. As I began to sift through all the “data” for myself, I thought that if I looked at it long enough, had a enough data points, and a sophisticated enough matrix, the answer as to what and where my future would hold, would appear in the bright lights or in the form of a monopoly card. What I did find was that I am an eighteen year-old passionate about Economics and World Affairs, with a weakness for Latin, likely to work in a city the rest of my life in the financial industry (and yes, to all the liberals out there, I do have a heart). I also realized how much I enjoy, what some who know me have termed, “the relentless pursuit of leisure” in the outdoors. Much in the way Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy offers a anti-climatic answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything (42), the harder I thought, the closer I looked, and the more I researched, the farther I was from an answer. I ultimately concluded the missing piece was “Why?” Throughout high school we all tend to do things because we think we should, or that they will get us far, or simply because we even enjoy it. But I never really spent enough time thinking about why. At no point in my high school career did I ever stop and ask myself why I do what I do. Theory of Knowledge keeps the question of “How do we know what we know?” on loop, but at 16, 17 or 18, the questions of “Why do I do I what do? And Why do I like what I like?” can be far more useful. These questions are as simple as they are productive. Use them wisely. The thing with trite sayings and thoughts is that at their core lies truth – a truth that just seems worn out with use. So go forth and ask why. I am damned glad I did. It allows the how, when, and where of life to fall into place.