SPECIAL ISSUE: 17, 712,000 seconds, 295,200 minutes, 4,920 hours

You spend 295,200 minutes in high school.

That’s 4,920 hours. 720 days. 4 years.

Though we often think of the stereotypical high school student going through classes as time ticks, our unique experiences and moments in time reflect that education should not be passive. Learning doesn’t happen by staring at a computer screen or mindlessly filling in the blanks of a worksheet— it happens in what we we do every day: education is not simply going through motions.

410 minutes in one school day times the 720 days we are required to be in school. That’s 295,200 minutes. When we decided to create this special issue, we knew we wanted to highlight specific student narratives—the moments in these hundreds of thousands of minutes that cause us to pause, and think about what we’ve learned. Click here to read the editorial

We asked several students and staff: What is a moment in high school that changed the trajectory of your life?

Read student narratives below:

L Cruz, senior, 11,890 minutes remaining

Omar Safi, junior, 85,690 minutes remaining 

Annabelle Spicer, junior, 85, 690 minutes remaining

Rhiannon Shelton, freshman, 233,290 minutes remaining

Danish Akbar, senior, 11,890 minutes remaining

Hiba Fatima, senior, 11,890 minutes remaining

Anonymous

Heidy Sanchez, sophomore, 159,490 minutes remaining

Read more teacher narratives below: 

Mrs. Katie Harris, 1,402,200 minutes teaching

Mr. Benjamin Boruff, 738,000 minutes teaching

Mr. Matthew Kalwasinski, 1,476,000 minutes teaching

Check out photos taken by Ms. Lanman’s photography students:

Click here to see photos