Students and teachers in CHS come from many different backgrounds, have different dreams and live different lives. Whether it is how they grew up with family or their day-to-day school life. Students’ upbringing impacts their experiences at CHS, and have all have different drives to stay motivated.
Freshman Aida Aenasoaie’s motivation comes from her mom and how she tries to improve people’s lives.
“I am so thankful for my mom; she put so much energy into her education [For her family],” Aenasoaie said. “I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay her and I will never be able to say enough thanks to her.”
Aenasoaie’s mom immigrated from Romania when she was 16 and went to graduate school in America. She almost quit gradudate school because she gave birth to Aenasoaie. As Aenasoaie grew up, she saw her mom get a PhD in anthropology with the help of their community and her hard work. For Aenasoaie, seeing her mom work so hard to make a better life for herself and her daughter has taught Aenasoaie the importance of hard work and the joy that helping people can bring.
“A lot of my friends tell me that my constant happiness and positivity give them joy,” Aenasoaie said. “I often help people without wanting anything back, which I’ve been told makes people’s day, and also my honesty and lack of tolerance for any disrespect towards anyone without justification.”
Her friends always count on her to be honest and sincere. Aenasoaie wants to protect her comrades, leading her to have the willingness to help and because of what her mom has done and does for her. Her mom is her role model.
“My drive to keep going is making people’s lives better in any way I can,” Aenasoaie said.
Similar to Aenasoaie, Junior Mak Weber’s drive comes from her mom and what she wants for her own future. When Weber was a kid, her mom worked nights as a nurse in the emergency room. Later, she became the head of the cardiovascular department at St. Joe’s Hospital. Weber saw her mom work nights from after her maternity leave to when Weber was 10. This hard work and dedication showed Weber that her mom worked so hard at the hospital to get a better job, so Weber can do whatever she puts her heart into, too.
Weber is currently enrolled in her first year at the Huron Valley Beauty Academy through CHS. At the end of this two-year cosmetology program, she will receive her cosmetology license and will be able to take on clients. She plans on using this income to start her own business or to attend university for a degree in Psychology. While she relies on herself to get through her cosmetology program, she also relies on her friends. Specifically, she points out her friend Kai Camara.
“She’s always like, get work done, and then you can have time for other things,” Weber said.
Weber described Camara as hard-working and always determined. Weber likes to follow her example when it comes to her motivation; if they can both finish their work, they can hang out afterward. As an added bonus, Weber won’t fall behind her peers. Weber is using these last two years of high school to set up her future, and to her, choosing friends who support her is important.
Uplifting others, like friends and the people around him, motivates Gabe Foster due to a strong belief that others are also humans. This principle leads him to respect and treat people as he would want to be treated because, in his mind, it’s unfair and unjust for others to suffer because they lack basic essential needs. He learned this lesson from an early age, from his family.
“I think my drive is from a place of helping others because I try to have the mindset of if one of us succeeds, we all should succeed,” Foster said.
Foster specifically points out a moment from his childhood, when he was a kid hanging out with his grandma. They went to Goodwill because they had extra pocket change. At the door, they noticed a man asking for money and food. Foster and his grandma decided to give the man their pocket money.
“As a kid, I was annoyed, but I’m very thankful for it now,” Foster said. “I try to replicate that as much as I can.”
Situations like this help remind him of the importance of helping others and the kind of loving people around foster. Small acts of kindness show how human his peers are, and this motivates him to reach his goals of helping others, which include his friends and random strangers.
FOS teacher Andrea Adams says her motivation comes from herself; she relies on herself and looks into the future with a positive attitude instead of a negative one. For example, when Adams had to weed her yard.
“I think about how nice it’ll look when I’m done and how happy my plants will be,” Adams said. “Then, as I’m doing it, I can just enjoy being outside and doing something positive on a nice sunny day.”
As a kid, Adam’s family owned a farm in the north, and she would be asked to clear fields of invasive species or split and stack entire trees. These long and tedious tasks felt so daunting for young Adams, so her mom would often quote, ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time.’ Adams always imagined this while working at the farm. Often, when she was done with these big chores, Adams would get a prize, like going swimming or getting ice cream.
“Plus, the field would be cleared of tractor rides, the wood would be done or the other tasks would be done,” Adams said. “It would keep our house nice and cozy in the winter. The hard work felt good when you were done, which helped build some motivation for the next time.”
This satisfying feeling of being done, and with the help of a little reward, taught Adam the importance of hard work. She learned that good things come from hard work, and this drives her work ethic to keep going.
Greta Daum-Bost says that her teacher helped motivate her a lot. Over the summer, she went to Interlocken band camp with Huron. At band camp, Daum-Bost had to not only learn concert music but also learn how to march in the heat.
“Camp was very difficult because it was my first time, and it was non-stop working towards a goal,” Daum-Bost said. “We had four rehearsals every day for two hours each and we needed to be focused constantly.”
But even though it was difficult, Daum-Bost was glad teachers were there to support and motivate her. During concert practice at camp, Huron band directors Robert Ash and Evaristo Rodriguez would constantly remind students that what they were doing was hard, but students needed to put their whole hearts into it.
Daum-Bost at first was really annoyed at Ash and Rodriguez, but throughout the week, she started to resonate with the message. If Daum-Bost hadn’t seen Ash and Rodriguez also working so hard throughout marching-band camp, she doesn’t think she would have been able to get through the week. For example, Daum-Bost noticed how much effort Rodriguez was putting into machining.
“Mr. Rodrieguz really hates sunscreen with a passion, so when we were marching on the field, he looked ridiculous,” Daum-Bost said. “He must’ve been overheating and sweating because he was bundled up in sun-protection clothes, with not an inch of skin showing.”
While marching, she realized that Rodriguez chose to be uncomfortable, but he was still pushing through it and putting his all into teaching the students, without complaining. This encourages her to also put the same amount of effort into her marching and playing.
Daum-Bost knows that even though some of the demands that Ash and Ridruguez had were hard and may have seemed unreasonable at camp, in general, they were for the students’ own good. This leads her to reflect and push herself to meet the standard her teachers are giving.
The people you surround yourself with, whether it’s family, friends or teachers, all impact and shape motivation at CHS. For Aenasoaie and Weber, it was the obstacles their mom faced and how they moved past them. But for someone else, like Foster, the values of his family taught him, and the idea that everyone is human motivates him. Adams considered the possibility of a reward and reliance on herself for her motivation. Teachers and their work ethic play a big part in students’ motivation, especially for Daum-Bost. In high school, whether it’s a student or a teacher, it is important to have a drive in order to thrive.
