As much as I hate to admit it, one of the greatest lessons I learned in life, I learned in high school. High school is a trying time for a lot of people. It’s a time to learn and change and maybe find yourself in this world. There are plenty of options to go about that — clubs, sports, other extracurriculars — but it really comes down to what you put into it. Coming from a small school, it seemed like I was doing a little bit of everything with the rest of my class. Cross country in the fall, debate in the winter, track and speech in the spring and soccer and theatre in the summer.

One of the most rewarding experiences of my high school career was participating in anything and everything student council related. Dances, raffles, spirit weeks and finals week pancake feeds. Eventually, I was determined to be an officer for our student council and got the position of public relations officer. Finally becoming an officer, I was privileged to go to a conference with the other officers. It was a conference that attracted other student councils from across the state, all with the purpose of educating us. We had all gathered in this one place to learn how to better ourselves, our schools, and our communities through our work as a student council.

It wasn’t until towards the end of the conference when every attendee was congregating in the auditorium while a speaker was preparing her presentation. We took our seats, took out or pens and pads and got ready to take notes. The speaker began to talk about what our roles are in our school and how we would go about providing for our fellow students. And then the presentation took a bit of a turn. An image of a rose floated on to the projection screen. She paused and looked out into the crowd as we patiently waited for an explanation for a seemingly random picture. We were asked to think about the most important people in our lives, then to think about the last time we had let them know that they are important. She went on to say that the flower meant more than just the traditional sense of “fiery-passion-I-love-you.” That it also meant “I care about you and your well-being and this is the how I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you.” She said we don’t take enough time out of the day to let these people know what they mean to us. And when we did, the world would be a better place to live in. The ones that are most important to use would know that they’re loved, and we would have the satisfaction of telling them.

After everything was said and done, we were challenged to do just that. Let the most important people in our lives know that we love them, that we care for them, by giving them a rose. This was a call to action and I answered. It was something a bit out of my comfort zone, but something I was convinced that needed doing. We left that conference and all I could think of was how I was going to work up the confidence to do what I wanted to do, what needed to be done. After a few hours of radio karaoke and a fast food feeding frenzy, we arrived back at school and went our separate ways.

I hopped in my car and sped off to Dillon’s to pick up a bouquet of roses. I had bought a dozen roses and I had a short list of people that I needed to see that evening. I drove to my best friend’s house and gave her a rose. She already knew what the rose was for because she went to the conference with me. I took three roses out of the bunch for a few people I knew I wouldn’t see until way later. Then I rushed off to my (at the time) girlfriend and caught her just after volleyball practice to give her the other eight roses in the dozen. She was my girlfriend and I thought she deserved the most! I explained to her what she meant to me and that the roses were just a small token of appreciation for being in my life. She blushed and we hugged.

Naturally, I had to give flowers to my mom and my sister. Without their love and support, who would I be and where would I be?

Taking the time to let the important ones in your life know how much they mean to you is unbelievably satisfying. I urge everybody to do it. You don’t need to go out and buy roses, but it wouldn’t hurt either. It could be as simple as a text message, but you should let them know. After all, who would you be and where would you be in life without them?