Wake up, come to school, complain, and do it again tomorrow.

So why do students do it; why do students come to school?

“To get a good job, for my future I need to get an education first,” said a junior. “It’s one of the most important parts of life in order to become an adult,” said a McKinley senior. Students are not ignorant to the realities of life many of them realize just how hard life can be without proper education. McKinley Expository Writing teacher, Thomas Favors put it best when he made the statement, “a lot of student don’t understand why they’re here at school, they’re actually here to learn how to deal with life.” A few students simply said “to get knowledge in my head” or “because I have to.” But despite this, they still come to school with a reason.

A June 2012 Student Quality Survey showed that 84% of students were satisfied with their experience at McKinley. One senior even went as far as to say, “Where else would I be through the day? I’m just trying to get out of high school.” Despite appearing as if she did not see the importance of school, she still comes to school and tries her best to get good grades, still with some sort motivation.

“It’s both the students and the school,” said Principal Ron Okamura, He stated that motivation needs to be exemplified by the students of the school, but also by the school itself. “School has to be relevant,” he said. He said that he felt that students are influenced by the media more than anything else.

Athletic Director Bob Morikuni expressed why he felt some students might take school for granted. “They don’t have goals, they don’t have a vision for what they want in life; they’re [living for the moment]. They might be dependent on their parents or have another way to survive, whether that be selling drugs, stealing, they list could go on and on. Sometimes we don’t learn our lesson, until we’ve actually [hit rock bottom].”

McKinley security guard Brandon (Puka) Tatupu said, “Life is about choices, whether you make good choices or bad choices, or whatever it is, going to have to live with the consequences, good or bad…it’s better to better to be ahead than behind.”

Now all of this could either open your eyes to what is important or it could mean absolutely nothing to you. The great thing about school is that for the most part you control your own future, whether you choose to make it easier to more difficult for yourself.