If a stranger were to walk down the hallway of Chase Collegiate Upper School, they would expect to get the feeling of a tight knit community. This sense of community is something that Chase Collegiate School thrives to create. However, it seems that this year this community feeling has vanished for one reason or another. The mission of this article is NOT to pin point why this is occurring, but to get everyone to realize that it is occurring so that maybe things can change. I for one know that I miss this sense of community I've had since freshmen year very much.



Lately, whether I am walking through the hallway, in the lecture hall, or even in the lunchroom, I always seem to hear people talking badly about other people. Now, don't get me wrong, EVERYONE is guilty of this. Yet, I for one think this is an awful habit that needs to end immediately. Talking behind people's backs is an awful thing to do, especially for students at such a small school where it can result in the feelings of the person being spoken about getting very hurt.



I have spoken to friends of mine outside of school, most of them coming from much larger schools than Chase. When I tell them how we all seem to have friends in all of the grades, they always are quite surprised. Yet, they always seem to say how they wish they had that at their school. The small numbers we have in our Upper School create the perfect place to have such a close knit community. There is no reason why everyone shouldn't know each other and not be able to have a discussion with everyone in the school. Again, there is also NO reason why there needs to be such rumors. All rumors do is create a community of distrust.



I think that we as high schoolers at Chase need to realize how fortunate we are to have the ability to know the entire student body. We need to stop being immature. We don't all need to be best friends with each other, but we shouldn’t be enemies either.