With only a month left of my final summer here at home, I can't help but reminisce about all of the great memories I've experienced, as well as the many different concepts of life that I have learned along the way throughout my high school career. However, one certain memory of mine involving the idea of creativity, is one that is special to me, and one that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Despite the fact that I am an avid movie fan, I have never really been a hugely creative person. I always have respected the art of movie making, but I was rarely the person who would come up with innovative ideas for a certain topic. I never truly understood how powerful a movie or any type of creation can be. However, this all changed my senior year of high school in Spanish class.

Walking into Spanish the first day of my final year of high school, I knew that this class would be by far my hardest. My teacher, Mrs. Purdy (who was my teacher Sophomore year as well), expected a lot from her students and had a very large work ethic. I walked in thinking that this would just be a normal class filled with endless grammar worksheets, an unnecessary amount of homework, and various tests. However, it was much more than that.

Instead of completing the many general course assignments mentioned above, we engaged ourselves into society's troubles through analyzing poems, reading articles, and discussing certain topics that plague the world we live in today. Certain issues included ethical dilemmas, the effects of plastic surgery, and whether or not euthanasia should be legal. (Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a person's life because of depression or a certain disease).

We studied all of these topics in preparation for our year-long Capstone film project. After splitting us into groups in October, Mrs. Purdy's instructions were to create three Public Service Announcements (PSA's), and one short film. Because there were nine people in our class, one group had five people and my group had four people. The goal of these films were, to create something that may have an impact on somebody or the community in general. We had until May to create it, where half the school would come to witness our products. This is where my friendships, hours of hard work, and my appreciation for creativity started.

My Spanish teacher Mrs. Purdy and I

For my group, we brainstormed topics such as domestic violence, eating disorders, and cyberbullying for our PSA's. Our short film was to be about a love story turned tragic because of a car accident. Little did I know, brainstorming was the easy part. Because there was four of us, we each had our own film, and despite the fact we all pitched in on filming each other's, we still had to edit our own. My PSA was about domestic violence. As we planned and filmed for months, I started to realize how difficult it is to actually create a feature film. For once in my lifetime, I was thinking of innovative ways in which we can create a product that is both powerful, and engaging for the school.

Despite the many months of filming, the part of this memory that sticks out the most is, the editing. I have to thank Mrs. Purdy for giving us every opportunity possible so we could be successful in creating our products. There were days where we would stay after school to edit for three hours, even on Fridays. In fact, there was one day where someone from the other group stayed after from two o'clock in the afternoon to ten at night. The commitment was unreal given the fact that a lot of us had sports and jobs. Because of this, friendships were created, and we were becoming a family.

Part of a message from Mrs. Purdy to us.

On the second to last day of school, we were going to showcase our products to half of the school in the auditorium. All of the hard work, long hours, and friendships we had built came down to this. As we showcase each PSA and short film, I can't help but realize how much more creative I have become, and how much more respect I have gained for screenwriters and directors everywhere. I also realize how much of a better understanding I have about the world.

So as teachers and students came up to us after the showing saying how blown away they were, it made me happy to know that we had made such an impact on people while also shining a light on issues that plague our world today. With a month left of summer, I can be satisfied with what I did during my final year of high school, and know that I can remember this life changing experience for the rest of my life.