Iseul Park can never forget her first parking ticket – disoriented, Park fiddled with the rectangular piece of white paper, her feelings of ostracization settling in her stomach.
Earlier that morning and readily equipped with her mom’s staff parking pass, Park apprehensively pulled into the Community parking lot.
Lacking context, Park’s well-intending friends advised her to park in the same fashion as all of the other returning students. Following her friend’s advice, she opted to neglect the staff parking pass and instead park on a local neighborhood street near where her friends had suggested. Unbeknownst to Park, she had accidentally placed her car in a 2-hour-limit parking area and ended up with a $15 fine and hurt feelings.
“I have not gotten a ticket since then,” Park said.
On the first day of her senior year and the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Park stepped into her new life as a new Community split enroller – commuting daily from Pioneer to Community. Recentering herself after her $15 loss, Park walked through the towering wooden double doors of St. Andrews Church for Community High School’s opening ceremony. Looking around the dimly-lit church, Park did not see a single other student that reflected her enrollment status.
“I was very overwhelmed,” Park said. “I didn’t think I was supposed to be there.”
Park, an incoming senior, had only ever attended Pioneer High School until this year. Although this is her first year, it isn’t the first time she approached enrollment to CHS. Back in her 8th grade year, Park had entered the CHS lottery and was offered admission. Though she was looking forward to being a CHS student, Park was unable to attend for the 2021-2022 school year. Despite this setback, Park did not eliminate the idea from her future plans. In fact, the thought of attending had been poking at her since 2021.
“I think it’s just been in the back of my mind for a while,” Park said. “I just thought that it would be really nice to have a change my senior year.”
Of course, many things in her life have changed since 2021. Progressing through her first three years of high school, Park was able to seize new opportunities she’d never encountered before. For example, Park has since become a devoted player on the Pioneer field hockey team. Having never played competitively before, her newfound passion took her by surprise.
“That experience was very new and something to adjust to,” Park said. “There were a lot of people to meet, but it ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Her commitment to field hockey has brought her new connections to CHS she would have never had otherwise; including a handful of CHS teammates. These bonds reinforced her confidence in her split enrollment status, knowing she would have friends by her side as she navigated a foreign social scape.
Another significant revelation of Park’s life journey after declining admission to CHS has been the exciting endeavor of pursuing counseling at a local sleepaway camp. Having been a camper for most of her childhood, Park had to face a new shift into adulthood: transitioning from camper to counselor.
Leaving her sophomore year of high school in 2023, Park entered her first year on staff as a Counselor-In-Training. Beginning her new position, Park felt like an outsider – a feeling that would later reoccur time and time again – experiencing the same disorienting feelings of when she got that $15 parking ticket.
“Every year leads with new experiences,” Park said. “Every year I’ve been has been so different from the last and it gives you something to look forward to,”
As a camper, a lot of “camp magic” is delicately held behind closed doors. But as a leader, Park found herself exposed to the behind-the-scenes of this “camp magic”, including tightly held camp secrets and institutional knowledge other staff members had known for years. Park had a lot of catching up to do.
“I was super uncertain because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Park said. “Half the time you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, and then you just slowly start to adjust. Then, the unknown becomes not so unknown. You come out a better person with a lot of experiences behind you that you learned from.”
Equipped with the adaptability of a summer camp counselor and the drive of a devoted field hockey player, Park took her first steps through the front doors of Community High School with the foundational understanding that the unknown is not something to fear but a precious opportunity to grow and learn.
“I don’t think that the unknown can ever be like a bad thing,” Park said. “I can’t say one negative thing about stepping into the unknown and taking in new experiences.”
After years of conquering uncertainties, Park found herself back at Community, a changed person with a changed perspective.
“New experiences are always something I would encourage people to try,” Park said. “I think that all of those things have shaped me as a person and changed who I am today in the best way.”
